Corpse Bride Book 2: Returning to the Bride
by CorpseBride916
Summary: Victor and Victoria are due to be married again in two days, but Victor is extremely sad about Emily back in the Land of the Dead. He will do anything to get back to her. Will Victor ever get back to his Corpse Bride? I DO NOT OWN CORPSE BRIDE!
1. prologue

Victor Van Dort watched Emily as her spirit hovered around him. She was there but she wasn't there. You could walk through her though you could feel her dress and veil. She seemed to have only her upper body. No legs. Her dress was the same length though it seemed to float around like she was under water. Her veil and hair did the same.

She flew around him in a circle, stopped at his right side and stared deep into his eyes. She then flew passed him and her veil brushed the back of his head lightly. She flew up with her eyes closed and twirled around in the air. She then flew back down to him and he looked up to her since her eyes were just an inch above his.

Her hair, veil, and dress floated upward as they stared into each others eyes. She closed her eyes again and let out a long breath of peace as she flew over to the trees. She gracefully would disappear behind one then reappear in front of a tree a couple of feet away like she was transporting herself.

The full moon beamed on Emily. It seemed to make everything so beautiful and peaceful. Victor then just noticed the beautiful gothic music that he was hearing. He was imagining the music though it seemed so real.

Emily flew upward twirling around as she ascended ten feet above him. When she stopped twirling Victor saw that she had her eyes closed again and had her hands clasped together.

With her eyes still closed, she spread out her arms and tilted her head toward the big bright full moon.

Then she slowly transformed into over a hundred bluish-purple butterflies. The butterflies flew in a group towards him and he turned around in a circle as they fluttered around him. Victor watched as they gracefully flew in front on the moon and flew back down low to the ground almost touching the sparkly white snow that covered the forest.

They circled around him again then began to turn back into Emily's ghost-like figure. The slight wind picked up and beautifully blew through Emily's hair and veil as she turned her head towards him.

She looked at him with lonely eyes as she started to disappear.

"Emily?" Victor said though she did not reply.

"Emily!" Victor started screaming over and over but it was too late. Emily was gone.


	2. Chapter 1

Something smacked Victor in the head and he awoke with a cry of "Emily!" he took deep breaths trying to calm himself of the nightmare of Emily leaving him. He looked around the room the Everglots had let him stay in before he and Victoria were to be married. He saw his parents, Victoria, and Victoria's parents. He turned his head to the left and saw his dad next to his bed with his cane high over his head. When he saw that Victor was awake, he set it down by his side.

"Tell that boy to stop screaming in his sleep!" Mrs. Everglot yelled. "It's almost two in the morning!"

They weren't happy. Even Victoria was starting to get annoyed by him always screaming Emily's name in his sleep. He knew his dad never liked to wake up early, so that's why he had probably hit Victor in the head with his cane.

"If he keeps screaming in his sleep like that, we'll never get any rest! Then we'll have to postpone the wedding till we get proper rest. And we can't afford to postpone it any longer!" Mr. Everglot bellowed.

Victor had no idea what to say. He knew he couldn't say he wouldn't scream in his sleep any more because he knew he would. Why were they making him do this? Couldn't they just find Victoria someone else to marry?

"Let's just all go back to bed and hope we can get some rest." Victoria said calmly though there was a bit of irritation in her voice.

Once everyone left the room, Victor sighed and sat up in his bed. Victor felt the tears run down his face as he leaned his head against the wall. He missed Emily so much. He loved her. The dreams he had where always so great until the end. Emily dancing around him in the forest under the moonlight…That had been one of his favorite moments with her.

Victor knew he was about to start sobbing hard so he grabbed the pillow next to him and buried his face in it.

He cried and screamed but they were all muffled by the pillow. After about an hour of doing that he lifted his head and took long shakily breaths as he calmed down a bit. He looked over to the clock in his temporary bedroom and saw that it was a couple minutes past three.

They must all be asleep right now. Victor thought to himself as a thought popped into his head. Once he thought of it he had to do it. He waited five more minutes until he was totally calmed down before he quietly got out of bed and walked over to some cabinets on the wall in the room.

He opened one and took out a thin, dark red, blanket. He closed the door and walked back over to his bed. He got down on his hands and knees and pulled out the pair of shoes that he had thrown under there before he had gone to bed.

He sat back down on his bed while he put them on. He didn't bother to put on socks because he liked the cold feeling of the shoes. He liked the feeling of being cold because it reminded him of Emily. Emily's cold blue skin…

Still in his night cloths, he walked over to the window and opened it. A cold gust of wind blew through his hair as he climbed out the window and pulled himself outside. It was a good thing the bedroom the Everglots had given him was on the first floor.

He closed the window and breathed in the fresh air. He walked through the town trying to avoid the town crier who was usually walking around at night to see if there was anything newsworthy. Surly after the whole 'Victor Van Dort in love with a corpse' thing and then him sneaking out at night a couple of days after that would defiantly cause some news.

Once he made it out of the town and onto the old stone bridge, he was glad that he hadn't seen the town crier any where. When he got to the middle of the bridge he stopped and looked to the right. That had been the exact spot where Emily had kissed him for the first time. His heart melted at the thought of it.

He began his walk again into the dark woods. The clouds blocked the moon so there was no moonlight. He walked through the snow surprised that he didn't mind that his feet were freezing. He knew exactly where he was going. Even though he had only been there once (He hadn't even really been paying attention to where he was going) he knew it like the back of his hand.

He walked through the tall skinny trees to his destination. Why couldn't he just stay in here forever? They might never even find him…No, he would need food, shelter, water, and even though he loved the feeling off the cold, he would freeze to death. Though would that be a bad thing if he died? He would be with Emily in the land on the dead then…

Victor's thoughts went away as he came up to the old oak tree in the woods. He no longer felt that welcoming feeling he had felt when he had first been here. Tears ran down his cheeks as he fell to his knees and sobbed on Emily's grave.

He knew why he no longer felt that welcoming feeling. It was because Emily was no longer here. She wasn't waiting for her true love anymore because she had already found him when he had said his vows over her grave and put the ring on her on her beautiful decayed left hand.

Emily was now in the land of the dead. What if he never saw her again? He crawled over to the oak tree because he was crying too hard to get up. He leaned against it and cried.

As he sobbed he folded the blanket he had brought and set it on the ground. He laid down and rested his head on the blanket. He felt better being here then at the Everglots. It gave him at least something of Emily's.

His world faded as he fell asleep crying on Emily's grave.


	3. Chapter 2

"Emily!" Victor screamed as he awoke on Emily's grave. It echoed off the trees in the forest. He cleared his head of the dream and looked around trying to remember why how he got here.

He had come here last night. That's how he had gotten here. He remembered. The sun was bright and there were no clouds in the sky. How long had he'd been asleep? It had to at least be around noon. Oh no! His parents and the Everglots must have realized he was gone! What were they going to say when he came back?

His body felt numb from sleeping on the snow in his nightwear except his head which had been on the blanket. He got up and shook off all the snow that had stuck to his cloths while he slept.

He knew they were going to be mad when he returned. Couldn't he just stay here for a little while longer? He sighed. No, he couldn't. The longer he stayed here the madder they were going to get. He didn't want to leave though.

He could come back here tonight maybe. It was the end of winter now and most of the snow should melt away since the sun was bright and there were no clouds blocking it. Though it wasn't that warm at all. It was still the weather where you had to where a coat or something to keep warm.

Victor thought it was too warm. He liked the weather to be cloudy and freezing cold. The land of the dead had always been so cold.

Victor picked up the blanket and shook off some of the snow on it. He folded it then stated walking back to his small town.

He used to love when ever the sun would come out like this. He used to be so scared of the dark. Now, he couldn't get enough of it. He dreaded when the sun would rise in the morning. Why did people sleep at night instead of the day anyways? It was so much prettier at night.

But Victor hadn't always thought that. He had started loving the night ever since he had met Emily. The way the moonlight had beamed on her. It had been so beautiful. And when she danced…He just loved her dancing. She was so graceful.

"Oh!" Victor gasped as he tripped over something and fell face first to the ground. He pushed himself up with his hands and turned his head to see what he had tripped over. A tree root. Why did he have to be so clumsy?

He let out a breath of annoyance before he got up and started walking again. He really had to start watching where he was going.

Through the tree's he saw the old stone bridge. He knew he should be nervous but he wasn't. He was too depressed to be nervous. Nothing else mattered to him anymore. Now the only thing he cared about was Emily.

He stopped in front of a tangle of small tree branches. He was about to duck under then but something caught his eye. He looked more closely and saw bits and pieces of some sort of dark brown cloth. It was his coat. It had been ripped when he had been trying to escape Emily when he first saw her.

He ducked under the branches and walked out of the woods. He avoided looking at the church. It would only make him more depressed because that had been the last place where he had seen Emily.

He walked onto the stone bridge and looked into the town. People were walking around doing there daily business. Victor hadn't been in town much since Emily had been taken away back to the land of the dead but every time he had he could always see everyone watching him.

He wasn't shy anymore. Emily had gotten him to open up and not be so afraid of people. Though he had to admit he didn't like everyone staring at him every time he went outside much.

He walked off the bridge and into town. Everyone stopped in there tracks and stared at him. What was the big deal? So what if a corpse had come out of her grave, taken him to the land of the dead, then he fell in love with her and he brought her and all of the rest of the dead people back to the land of the living so he could marry her? That wasn't that big of a deal was it?

Of course it was! Who was he kidding? He wasn't going to say anything so why didn't they just get on with there lives already? They never did ask any questions any more. They had all asked questions the day Emily had left. He had ignored them all because he had been an emotional wreck that day.

Though it was only two days after that had happened, so Victor knew it was going to take a while for this whole thing to blow off.

"Hear, ye! Hear, ye! Victor Van Dort gone missing last night…" Yelled the town crier walking on the street. When he saw Victor he said "Never mind!"

Victor walked past the crowd of people and headed for the Everglot mansion. He walked fast because people were staring at him. They probably thought he had some how made it back to the land of the dead. Then he heard someone talking to him.

"Where did you go Victor? Were you…"

He stopped and stared at the man. Then a few other people came up behind the man and stared at him waiting for his answer.

"Yes, Master Van Dort. Where had you gone?" Pastor Galswells said joining the little group that had formed. Pastor Galswells didn't like Victor at all after finding out he had fallen in love with a corpse.

When Victor didn't answer his question, Pastor Galswells said. "Well apparently you are hiding something. Are you ready for the wedding tomorrow?"

"No," Victor answered.

"What! You are not? What is wrong with you Master Van Dort!" He yelled furious.

"Nothing." He said.

"Then why are you not ready!" he hollered. He seemed like he was going to tackle him right then and there.

"Because a jerk took the one I loved away from me. And I don't care at all about this stupid wedding!" Victor screamed at him.

Everybody seemed shocked. No one would have ever imagined him saying that and he hadn't just said it, he had yelled it, and to pastor Galswells.

Pastor Galswells turned a shade whiter because he knew that he had told Elder Gutknecht to take all the dead people back to the land of the dead so technically he was responsible for Victor's depression and he was astonished that he had called him a jerk.

Victor turned away from them, walked up the steps to the Everglots front door, opened the door, and slammed it behind him.


	4. Chapter 3

Victor screamed a cry of anger. What was wrong with Pastor Galswells anyways? He's a pastor; he out of all people should know that the people of the land of the dead were harmless! What was the big deal? So, he fell in love with a corpse. Didn't anyone believe in true love any more?

"Victor!" yelled his mother now coming into the room. "You shall not yell in the Everglots house!"

"Your yelling." He sneered not really caring about his attitude at the moment.

Victor mother looked just as shocked as the people outside had when he had screamed and called pastor Gallswells a jerk.

"Victor…what has that corpse done to you?" she said saying the word corpse like it was a disease.

"Don't… call… her… a corpse!" Victor yelled at her. "Her name is Emily! And she opened up my heart! Do you see me practically fainting every time I see a person any more? No, you don't!"

"She gave you an attitude! And…" Victor's mother said but he interrupted her.

"She gave me an attitude? It was you and the rest of the other idiots who gave me an attitude! You care more about being in a higher society then you do about your own son!"

"Victor-" She started but then stopped when a new thought popped up into her mind. "Wait a minute…where did you sneak off to last night?"

"Why do you care?" he said glaring at her.

"Because after you fell-" Victor's mother just couldn't say it. She couldn't say that it was her son who had fallen in love with a corpse. She still couldn't believe it.

"What? Is there something wrong with falling in love with Emily who just happened to be dead?" Victor questioned still glaring at her.

Victor's mother was about to say something but then Mr. and Mrs. Everglot with Victoria walked into the room.

"What is all the yelling about?" Mr. Everglot yelled and then saw Victor. "Where have you been? You think you can just go off some where a day before the wedding?"

Victor didn't reply. He had never been this angry before. He hadn't really ever been angry in his life because he had been always so shy.

"Where did you go? You will answer the question!" Mrs. Everglot said raising her voice.

"Fine. I'll answer your question! I went to Emily's grave. There, you happy now!" he blurted.

"Who's Emily?" Mrs. Everglot asked raising an eyebrow.

"Who do you think! She's the dead girl I fell in love with!" Victor screamed. How could they have not known this by now?

Everyone in the room grew quiet as they were reminded of that. It still shocked them. It also kind of scared them.

"Well now that I answered your question, I think I will be going." He said started to walk to his temporary room.

"Young man! We still have the wedding rehearsal! We need to make sure you are properly prepared!" Mrs. Everglot said.

Victor stopped and turned to her. He then simply said "Come and get me when it's Emily that's going to be standing by me when I say my vows." He then left the room and started walking through the hall to his room.

He wasn't going to marry Victoria. He just wasn't. They weren't going to make the decisions any more. This was his life and even if he spent every day of the rest of his life in depression, he wasn't going to betray Emily by marrying Victoria. She wouldn't want him to marry Victoria and he didn't want to marry Victoria.

When he got to his room, he opened the door, slammed it behind him, and then threw himself onto his bed. It's not like Victoria wanted to marry him. She wanted to marry that other guy. So what was the point of this? He didn't love her and she didn't love him. Why did his parents care so much about being in a higher society? Didn't they care about him at all?

They probably didn't. His father didn't really care much about being in a higher society. He just went along with Mrs. Van Dort. What did his father think about all this? About him falling in love with a corpse? He hadn't talked much since he had found out.

Victor's dad had been Victor's only friend before he had met Emily. Even though they didn't talk much, his dad had always been nice to him and he had cared about him. Should he talk to his dad about this? Would he understand or not?

Victor laid down in his bed and thought about it. He then heard a knock on his door and he sat up.

"Who is it?" he said a bit annoyed.

"Emil. Your parents and the Everglots wish to speak with you at once."

Emil. Part of the Everglots staff. The Everglots always had a ton of workers to do everything for them.

"Tell them I'm not going to talk to them." Victor said laying back down again.

"They said I cannot leave until I get you out of this room and into the drawing room where they will speak to you."

"Well then you're going to be here a long time." Victor said getting really annoyed now.

Emil stopped talking not seeming to know what to do. He then said. "I suggest you get out of this room and into the drawing room or else there will be consequences."

"Oh really? What consequences? What else do I really have to lose?" Victor said now sitting up and resting his elbows on the bed. He was getting angry again.

Emil seemed to sense that too. He knew if he just got Victor madder then he already was there was no way he was going to talk to his parents and the Everglots. He heard Emil walk away and he laid back down again, his feet dangling off the end of the bed.

Did they really think that he was going to talk to them after all that happened like what, ten minutes ago? Where they really that stupid? He sighed and closed his eyes to rest and think.

Where would he go since he had decided he wasn't going to go along with this whole wedding thing? He didn't know anyone else in town. He couldn't do this on his own. He needed someone to help him

His father then popped into his mind again. He needed to find out what his father thought of all of this. He needed to talk to him.

Victor got out of bed and walked over to the door. He left his room and started walking down the hallway to the room his parents where staying in. When he came to the door, he saw that it was open and he was lucky that his father was the only one in there. He took a couple of deep breaths and then walked into the room.


	5. Chapter 4

"Father?" Victor said slowly stepping into the room. His dad turned away from the window he was staring out of and looked at him. They hadn't said one word to each other since he had found out about Emily.

"Could we talk?" Victor said taking another step forward.

Victor's father didn't say anything, but he walked over to the small couch that was in the room and motioned for Victor to sit in the arm chair in front of it.

Victor walked over and sat in the chair while his dad took a seat on the couch in front of him. He didn't say anything so Victor took that as a sign that he should talk first.

"I…I…I wanted to talk to you about Emily," Victor started. "The dead girl I fell in love with."

Victor's father didn't say anything so he continued.

"You're the only one who hasn't said anything about this…I want to know what you have to say about it." Victor said hoping his dad would say something.

His father looked down and stayed quiet. Was that a good sign or a bad sign? Was he thinking about it?

Victor tried again. "I want to know if you're disappointed in me…or sad about it or mad."

"I'm not mad," Victor father said.

Ok this was a start. His father was now talking. That's a good thing.

"I'm not disappointed either," His dad said.

"Are you sad?" Victor asked. Was he sad? What would make him sad? He could understand if he was mad or disappointed, but sad?

"Yes, I am sad, but not for the reason you think." His father said finally.

What was he sad about if it wasn't this? Victor was confused.

"If it's not because I fell in love with Emily…then what is it? Why are you sad? And you still haven't answered my question on how you feel about all this."

"It does have to do with the corpse." His dad said but quickly said. "I mean…um…Emily." He must of heard about how he hated when people called her a corpse even though they new her name.

"What about Emily?" he asked. Now he was totally lost.

"Let me start at the beginning."

"Beginning? What beginning?" Victor asked. What on earth was he talking about?

"I'm going to explain why I'm sad and I have to start at the part where it will all make sense to you."

"Ok…" he said slowly.

"When I first heard the town crier tell us. Us as in me, your mother, and the Everglots, that you where seen on the bridge in the arms of a mystery woman, I didn't believe it. Then later that night the town crier said you were married to a corpse. I didn't believe that either. I thought the town crier was just making it up to get some interesting news out.

"So I didn't give a second thought to it. I was still a bit worried about where you were and if you were alright. Then a little while after Victoria was wed to Lord Barkis, I saw dead people in the street moving and running around. Everyone was terrified and panicking. I thought this had nothing to do with you. I hadn't even been thinking about you at the time. I was too frightened.

"Soon everyone found people they loved that had died…and I found Mayhew. I wasn't scared anymore but I was really confused. I asked him why all the dead people where here in the land of the living and how all of this was possible.

"Mayhew said 'where not staying here long. Were just here for Victor's wedding'. I was really confused then and I asked him what he was talking about and he said that you were marrying a corpse. He also said that you had to die to marry her.

"I thought at the time that you were kidnapped and was being forced to marry her. Because you had always been so shy…I thought you must have been scared to death. So I got your mother and she only seemed to care about the whole higher society thing. We then saw pastor Galswells talking with Mr. and Mrs. Everglot. There were five other men with them and they all had muskets. We asked them what they were doing and pastor Galswells said they were going to get you away from that corpse.

"So we started heading for the church. Once we got there and barged into the church ready to attack, I saw you…holding her in your arms. And then you refused to leave her when pastor Galswells ordered you to."

"So…why are you sad…or what made you sad?" Victor asked.

"Let me finish. When they pointed there muskets at you and…"

"Emily."

"Yes, you and Emily. I got worried that they where going to shoot you. I was relieved when they put the muskets down but the way you screamed when they separated you from Emily…it showed me how much you really loved her."

Victor's eyes started to fill up with tears as his father talked about the awful tragedy. His father seemed to notice this and said.

"Is this too depressing for you? I could stop if you want…" Victor's dad suggested.

"No, continue." Victor said wiping away the tears that were about to fall.

"Are you sure?" His father asked concerned.

"Yes."

"You were so sad…It made me sad to see you so sad." Victor's dad finished.

"You're sad because I'm sad?" Victor asked bewildered.

Victor's dad nodded and then said. "Now I want to hear your story. I still have no idea how you got to the land of the dead and met Emily."

Victor smiled. He was going to love telling him about Emily.

"Ok well after I ran out of the Everglots house, I ran all the way to the old stone bridge. Then I heard the town crier yell to everybody that I had ruined the rehearsal so I walked into the forest and practiced my vows.

"No matter how hard I tried I couldn't get them right. Then I came up to an old oak tree. It felt so right to be there so I started saying the vows again and I didn't miss a single word."

I took the ring out of my coat, got down on one knee and placed it on what I thought was a tree root. Something pulled my arm into the ground but I got it out quickly though I had pulled it out with me. It turned out to be a skeleton arm."

"Emily's arm?" his dad asked.

"Yes. Then out of the ground came Emily. I fell in love with her at first sight. She apparently thought that I had been saying my wedding vows so that I could marry her and came out of the ground to be with me, her husband. I knew a normal person would be running away screaming in terror and it scared me that I didn't want to get away from her.

"So I ran away and she chased me. She soon caught up to me at the old stone bridge."

"How did she take you to the land of the dead?"

Victor was about to answer but he didn't know the answer. How had Emily taken him to the land of the dead?

"I don't know." Victor answered.

"Well you were there…" his dad started confused.

"I passed out so I'm not sure."

"You passed out? Why did you pass out?" his dad questioned.

Victor's mind drifted to that marvelous moment where Emily had kissed him. How her veil and dress had been flowing in the breeze…

"Victor?" His dad said bringing Victor out of his thought.

"Yes? What?" Victor said forgetting what the question was.

"I asked you why you passed out and then you just stared off into space."

"Sorry…I was thinking,"

"So, why did you pass out?" Victor's father asked again.

"I passed out because she kissed me." Victor said smiling at the thought.

It was silent for a while and then his dad asked. "What happened next?"

"I woke up in the land of the dead. I got freaked out by all the dead people, which I didn't get because I hadn't gotten freaked out by Emily. I asked her who she was and they 'told' me how she was suppose to get married but her dad said no so she snuck off the forest late at night so she could marry him and he killed her for her money under the old oak tree.

"I had wanted someplace to be alone so I could think about everything that had happened and I admit I was jealous of that other man who she had fallen in love with. She finally caught up to me and we sat down on a bench together. While we were sitting there she gave me a gift."

"A gift?" he father asked just as confused as he had been when Emily had given the gift to him.

"A wedding present," he explained. "I opened the gift to what I thought was just a pile of bones, but then the whole thing started shaking and it fell out of my hands. All the bones fell out of the box and formed into a skeleton dog."

"She gave you a dead dog?" he asked still confused.

"Remember my dog Scraps I had when I was younger?"

"She gave you Scraps? Where you happy to see him?" he asked.

Victor smiled. "Yes very. I told her how mother never really approved of Scraps and she asked if mother would have approved of her. An idea popped into my head then. I thought if I could lie to her and tell her I wanted her to meet my parents, I could sneak off and go talk to Victoria about how I had fallen in love with Emily."

"Victoria?" he questioned.

"Victoria seemed to be the only one I could get advice from at the time. Emily agreed to meet you and my mom. She took me to the leader of the land of the dead. Elder Gutknecht. He did a spell that transported us back to the land of the living. I then told her to wait there while I went to Victoria's house."

"Emily just stayed there?"

"I told her I was going to prepare you guys to meet her. So I went to Victoria's house, climbed up to the balcony of her room and told her about how I had fallen in love. She told me how she was already in love also. I told her about Emily and she didn't believe me until Emily came into the room shocked to find Victoria.

"Victoria then saw Emily right in front of her and realized what I had told her was true. Emily thought me and Victoria were more then friends and took me back to the land of the dead. I told her that Victoria and I were only friends but then my thoughts started thinking about the other guy that she had fallen in love with before she died and jealous, I said something that hurt her feelings.

"I felt awful. She had left after I said that and I when I found her again she was playing a piano. It was a sad melody that she was playing. I sat down next to her and apologized though she still seemed angry. I played a few happy melodies on the piano and we did a little piano duet. She had forgiven me and then I found Mayhew. He asked why I was here and I told him how I had fallen in love with a corpse. He was shocked at first but then he told me how Victoria was getting married to some new guy named Lord Barkis.

"The guy that was at the wedding rehearsal?"

"Yes him. I felt bad that I got to be with the one I loved and Victoria didn't. I then over heard Elder Gutknecht telling Emily how there was a complication with our marriage. He said that the vows say 'till death do you part' and since Emily was dead and I wasn't we couldn't properly be married. He said the only way I could properly marry her was to die for her.

I then came into the room and told them that I would die for her. I would die to marry her. Elder Gutknecht said that we would have to have the wedding ceremony in the land of the living and I would have to drink from the wine of ages, which is poison. So all the dead people went up to the land of the living for the wedding.

"In the middle of the wedding after I had said my vows and Emily was saying hers, she looked at something behind me and started crying. I asked her what was wrong and then Lord Barkis came into the church. She told me that he had been the man who murdered her. Soon everyone from the land of the dead knew it was him who had murdered her and got extremely angry like I had been when Emily told me.

"He then started backing away from the furious dead people and grabbed a sword…"

"A sword?"

"One of the dead people had a sword sticking out of there chest. So he took the sword and grabbed Victoria who had been in the crowd all along. I realized that he was going to do the same thing to Victoria as he had done to Emily and I told him to leave her alone. He then got mad and started trying to kill me with the sword. One of the corpses that worked in the kitchen through me a fork so I could defend myself.

"So he kept swinging the sword at me trying to kill me but I avoided it every time. He caught me off guard, knocked the fork out of my hand, and kicked me in the stomach. I fell to the ground and just as he was about for stab the sword through me Emily ran in front of me and Barkis had struck the sword through her chest though it didn't do anything since she was dead.

Barkis then said something really rude to Emily and drank the wine, which he didn't know was poison. He then died and all the dead people shoved him in a room and gave him what he deserved.

"That's when pastor Gallswells and the others barged into the church and took Emily away from me."

Victor and his father talked for a long time about Emily.

Victor yawned and looked over to the wall clock to see that it was past twelve at night.

"You should get some rest," Victor's dad said. "We can talk again tomorrow."

Victor yawned again and agreed. He got up to leave the room.

"Good night father,"

"Good night, Victor."

Victor then walked back to his room, fell into his bed and immediately fell asleep.


	6. Chapter 5

**this chapter is a bit shorter then the others i would have made it longer but i wanted a cliff hanger at the end :)**

Someone shook Victor in his sleep and he awoke with a gasp. He sat up in bed and turned to see who had awakened him. It was his father who was raising an eyebrow at him.

"What? Why are you looking at me like that?" Victor questioned.

"You didn't scream 'Emily' when you awoke." His father whispered.

"That's because my dreams are great at the beginning and turn into nightmares at the end. You woke me up before I got to the nightmare part. So why did you wake me up?" Victor whispered.

"Well you don't want to marry Victoria, so shouldn't you run away or something?" his dad said.

The wedding! That was today! Victor looked over to the clock to see that it was past four in the morning. The wedding was at seven, which meant he would have had to waken up at six. It was a good thing his dad had woken him up now. But where was he supposed to go?

"Where am I supposed to go? I can't stay in town because if someone sees me they'll tell the Everglots and…" Victor said getting out of bed and sitting down on an arm chair in the room.

"Don't worry. I have an idea. Though I'm not sure if it could work," His father uncertainly.

"Well I'm desperate for ideas. So what's your idea?" Victor said resting his head in his hand.

"Well, most of the snows all melted right now and you could live outside of town without freezing to death." His dad suggested.

Outside? Where outside though? How would he get food and water? If this was the only idea that could work then he'd do it. Though living outside didn't appeal to him.

"So…I'm supposed to just live outside forever?" Victor asked.

His father laughed a bit and said "No, Victor. You don't live outside forever. Just until the Everglots find Victoria someone else to marry, which will be quickly."

"How do you know?" he asked.

"Did it take them long to find a replacement the first time you were gone?"

Good point.

"So…how will I get food and water? What if some kind of animal attacks me or something?" he questioned. This was going to be a lot harder then he thought.

"I never said that living outside was my only suggestion. That was more like…hmm…how do I put it…like in case of the worst. If we had no other choice."

"What's your other idea?"

"Well our house is abandoned right now…so I guess you could stay there for a while. You know, until the Everglots find Victoria someone else to marry. Well since Victoria will have someone else to marry, me and your mother will have to go back to the house and it would be like this whole wedding thing never happened."

Victor didn't want to pretend the whole thing hadn't happened because if it hadn't he would have never met Emily. He didn't belong in this town anymore. He didn't like being here.

"I'd be ok with living at our house until Victoria gets married but after that…I don't know…I just…" Victor sighed. "It just doesn't feel right here anymore."

"I understand. Though every where you go you wouldn't feel right. You belong in the Land of the Dead, even though you're living."

His father was right. He did belong in the Land of the Dead though there was no hope in him getting back there.

"You should leave now. The sun's going to start to rise soon." Victor's father said.

Victor got off the chair and walked to the window.

"Bye father. I hope we get to see each other again sometime." Victor said as he started to climb out the window.

"Wait! You should take a blanket or a coat. You're going to be cold on the way there." Victor's father suggested.

"It's ok. I like the cold." Victor said smiling.

"Ok then." Victor father said sighing. "Good bye, son."

"Good bye, father" Victor said as he closed the window and started walking to his house.

There was a slight breeze in the air. Victor liked it. He liked the cold wind blowing on his face and through his hair. Victor's house wasn't far from the Everglots. It was really close.

Victor walked up the steps to his house, opened the door, and quietly closed it behind him. Victor looked around. Nothing had changed. It felt like he hadn't been here in years though he had been here less then a week ago.

Victor walked up to his room and fell onto his bed. He had always loved having the house to himself. He still did.

He was tired. He had only gotten about four hours of sleep. Victor closed his eyes and soon fell asleep.

A little noise awakened Victor. He sat up in bed and saw light pouring in from the window in his room. Victor heard the noise again and listened, waiting to hear it again so he could tell were it was coming from.

What was making that noise? It was very hard to hear. Victor looked around the room but saw that it was exactly the same as he had left it a couple of days ago

He heard it again and he got out of bed. He waited for it and when he heard it he got down on his knees and peered under the bed.

His eyes widened in shock. No, it couldn't be possible! He had to be dreaming! Victor closed his eyes and shook his head to clear it. He was just imagining it. His mind was playing tricks on him, that's all. Victor took a couple of deep breaths to calm himself before he forced his eyes open and looked under the bed once more.

It was still there. Victor couldn't believe his eyes. How could this be possible? And why was it here? How could it be here? Victor took a couple of more deep breaths before he reached under the bed and pulled out…


	7. Chapter 6

He pulled it out and into his arms. Scraps barked and looked up happily to him. How could Scraps be here? Shouldn't he be back in the Land of the Dead?

Victor smiled at Scraps and stood up with Scraps in his arms. Victor sat back down on his bed. Scraps hopped out of his lap and started rolling around on the bed. Scraps seemed to like the warm green comforter.

How had Scraps gotten here? Or had he been left behind when Elder Gutknecht took all the corpses and skeletons back to the Land of the Dead. There was no way Scraps could have gotten to the Land of the Living all on his own. He must have been left behind.

Victor sat cross-legged on the bed and Scraps snuggled up next to him. Victor started petting Scraps' skull when he heard his stomach growl. He just realized how hungry he was.

Scraps looked up to him; Victor got out of bed and walked to the door.

"Come on Scraps. Let's go down to the kitchen." Victor called to him.

Scraps jumped off the bed and followed him as he went down stairs. Victor walked over to one of the cabinets and opened it. There wasn't much food left. There was enough to last him maybe two or three days.

Victor took out a couple of pieces of bread and an apple. He closed the cabinet and opened the one on top of it. Victor sighed. Why did his mother always wanted them to use such expensive china? He looked at the top shelf which had all the simple, non-expensive, plates. He couldn't reach though.

His mother had always put all of the plates that she didn't think were proper to use on the top shelf so even if someone wanted to use one, they couldn't reach it. Victor was pretty tall but he couldn't reach it.

He looked over to the counter besides the cabinets. If he climbed onto the counter he could get it. He looked over to Scraps who was giving him a look as if to say 'Victor, you can barley walk across a flat surface without falling. What makes you think you could climb onto the counter to get a plate in a cabinet filled with very expensive china without hurting yourself?'

Victor looked back up to the shelf and was determined to get it. He climbed onto the counter. He took a deep breath and then slowly stood up. The cabinets were good for keeping his balance.

Scraps started barking nearly making him slip. His heart beat pounded in his chest as he gasped for breath.

"What's wrong with you?" Victor said to Scraps. "Are you trying to make me fall?"

Scraps kept on barking but stopped when Victor yelled. "Scraps! You have to be quiet or else someone will know were here!"

Victor brought his attention back to getting the plate. He stood up on his toes and slowly reached up to get the plate.

So far so good. Victor thought to himself.

As Victor slowly pulled out the plate someone ran into the house and yelled "Victor!"

This startled him so much that he fell off the counter and landed on his shoulder hard. The plate had fallen out of his hand and shattered a couple of inches away from him.

"Oh my gosh! Are you ok?"

Victor recognized the voice. It was his dad.

Victor groaned and then slowly got up. He looked over to the broken plate. It was a good thing it hadn't been the china.

"What the heck were you doing Victor?" his dad asked coming up to him.

"I was trying to get a plate, but it was all the way up there and…well you get the picture."

"You need to be more careful." His dad said shaking his head.

"Well I wasn't expecting you to run in screaming my name." Victor said defending himself. "So why are you here?"

"I came to tell you that the Everglots are trying to find Victoria another man to marry."

"Already?" he asked bewildered.

"They kind of seemed relieved that you were gone...Pastor Galswells is getting suspicious though." He announced.

"Well that doesn't surprise me." Victor said bending down and carefully putting all the broken plate pieces into one pile. His dad bent down and helped him.

"I need one of those dust sweeper thingies!" Victor called out to Scraps loudly and then added. "And some kind of bag!"

Victor's father stared at him weirdly.

"What?" Victor said forgetting that his dad didn't know Scraps was still in the Land of the Living.

"You said that…um…kind of loudly," he said slowly.

Victor then remembered that his dad didn't know about Scraps being here.

Then Scraps came jogging into the room toward him with a little velvet bag and a dust sweeper in his mouth. He dropped them in front of Victor and looked up to him.

"Good boy, Scraps." Victor said petting his skull. Victor then turned back to his father who was staring at Scraps with widened eyes.

"How…how…how is that here?" his father stuttered.

"His name is Scraps, dad. You remember Scraps." He said.

"I don't remember him as being just bones though." His dad said nervously.

"He's exactly the same as before except he's dead. And to answer you question, I don't know how he's here. I think he got left behind when Elder Gutknecht took all the dead people back to the Land of the Dead."

"I don't see how you could ever get used to that," his dad said "Doesn't him being dead freak you out?"

"No," Victor answered.

"What about the first time you say him? Where you freaked out?"

"No, as I had told you last night I was very happy to see him." Victor said trying to jog his dad's memory.

"We talked about a lot of things last night. You expect me to remember that tiny detail?"

Victor laughed "No, I guess not."

Victor swept up the broken plate pieces into the bag and gave it to Scraps.

"Go bury this somewhere." He said. "If you could bury by where Pastor Galswells lives that would be great."

Scraps left the room with the bag.

"Victor!" his dad scolded.

"What?" Victor asked innocently.

"That's rude! What did he ever do to you?"

"He took away my true love." He said seriously.

They stayed quiet for a few moments.

"I should get going. There going to start getting suspicious if I'm always sneaking off."

"Come back when you find out anything new." Victor said.

"I will," His dad said as he started walking towards the door.

"Bye,"

"Bye, and make sure that…er…dog, isn't running around the town. Pastor Galwells is going to have a heart attack if he sees that thing."

"Is that a bad thing?"

Victor and his father burst out laughing.

"Ok, good bye. I'll come by if I hear anything knew." His dad said still giggling a bit.

"Bye," Victor said.

Scraps ran inside as his dad opened the door. His dad watched Scraps jump on the couch. He then walked outside and closed the door behind him.

Victors mind drifted to Emily. He missed her so much.

He looked over to Scraps on the couch and said to him "Do you miss her too?"

Scraps seemed to know who he was talking about and gave a sad little bark.

Victor collapsed onto the couch as tears started running down his face. He picked up Scraps and hugged him as he sobbed.


	8. Chapter 7

**sorry i havnt updated for a long time. this is a short chapter. the next chapter will be better and ill have it up today :) hope you enjoy**

A little while after Victor had calmed himself down, he got off the couch and went over to the table were he ate the apple and the bread. After he was done he looked over to the clock and saw that it was almost five in the afternoon. He looked down at his cloths and realized he had been wearing them for a while. He had been wearing his night cloths ever since he went to Emily's grave.

He got up and walked over to the stairs. Scraps jumped off the couch and followed him. He walked up to his room and over to his closet. He pulled out a pair of trousers and through it on his bed, and then he scanned the closet for a shirt to wear. He didn't feel like wearing what he would usually wear. A suit with lots of layers.

He took out a simple white shirt and then walked back over to his bed. He took off the shoes he had been wearing, happy to finally take them off and dressed into the trousers and the white shirt.

He sat cross-legged on his bed and watched Scraps roll around. Was there any possible way he could get back to the Land of the Dead? How had Emily taken him back to the Land of the Dead the first time?

Could the Ukrainian Haunting Spell work here? No, probably not. Maybe Emily would come back for him? Pastor Galswells told Elder Gutknecht to never return to the Land of the Living and the only way Emily could get here was to have Elder Gutknecht transport her.

Victor sighed. There just wasn't any possible way to get back. Then his mind finally came up with an idea that _would _work. He could kill himself. Why hadn't he thought of that before? Though _how _would he kill himself?

Scraps stopped rolling around, walked over to him and snuggled up next to him. Victor petted Scraps while he thought.

The wine of ages was what was supposed to kill him so he could marry Emily but you don't just see poison lying around every where.

This was going to be harder then it sounded. Make that a lot harder.

Victor looked over to his window. People could easily see in. He needed to stay hidden as best as he could until Victoria's parents found her someone else to marry.

He got out of bed, trying not to make to much noise because Scraps had fallen asleep, and walked over to the window. He shut the curtains and the room became very dark. Not pitch black but dark.

He liked it dark. He smiled to himself, walked back over to his bed and laid down.

Scraps awoke and lazily got up. He scooted over to where Victor was now laying, snuggled up next to him and fell asleep instantly.

It probably wouldn't take the Everglots much longer to find Victoria a man to wed. That meant he could come out of hiding sooner. Where was he going to go after this? He couldn't stay in this town any longer. He didn't like people always staring at him because he had fallen in love a corpse. He didn't belong in this town any more. He didn't like being in this town.

There was the possibility of living in the forest. He loved it there because Emily's grave was there but it would be tough to live there. He couldn't live there forever.

A sudden noise tore Victor away from his thoughts. It only took him a second to realize that it was just the wind. It was a windy night. It was the kind of wind where you could hear it howling.

Victor then just noticed how extremely tired he was. He could barley keep his eyes open. What time was it anyways? The nearest clock was down stairs in the kitchen but he didn't feel like getting up and going down there.

Why was he so tired? Maybe he hadn't gotten enough sleep last night. Though he had been sleeping a lot lately. It was probably all the crying. It probably tired him out.

He could sleep in tomorrow. He could sleep all day tomorrow if he wanted to. What else would he have to do tomorrow? He couldn't leave the house.

He would be bored tomorrow so sleeping in seemed like a good idea. He needed a day where he could just stay in bed, relax, and think.

Though what if his father came over tomorrow? Victor wouldn't be surprised if Mr. and Mrs. Evergot had already found Victoria another man to marry. His father would probably wake him up if he came over tomorrow.

Victor cleared his head of all his thoughts and closed his eyes. He yawned and quickly fell asleep.


	9. Chapter 8

**MWAHAHAHAHAHA! FINALLY! TIME FOR THE GOOD PART! **

About an hour later Victor was awakend by Scraps' who had jumped off the bed and started barking.

"Shhh! Be quiet Scraps!" Victor ordered.

Scraps stopped barking and looked up to him. He must have wanted Victor to wake up.

"What do you want?" Victor said annoyed. Victor was still exhausted. Did scraps really have to wake him up right now? What did the little dead animal want?

Scraps jumped back on the bed and came over to him. Victor sighed and laid back down. Scraps grabbed his shirt and started tugging on it trying to get him up.

Victor pushed Scraps away and buried his face deeper into his pillow. Scraps didn't give up though. He started tugging on the end of his trousers.

Victor sighed and sat up. Scraps stopped, came over to him and started tugging on the end of his shirt. He seemed to want him to get out of bed and follow him some where.

Victor knew Scraps wasn't going to stop until he got his way so Victor got up defeated.

"Ok. I'm up. Now what do you want?" Victor questioned.

Scraps started wagging his tail, glad that he was up, and walked over to the door. Scraps barked once and motioned with his head for Victor to follow him.

Was his dad here? Why was Scraps in such a hurry to get him out of his room?

Scraps walked out of his room and Victor followed him as Scraps ran down the stairs and stopped at the front door. Scraps wanted him to go outside.

"We can't go outside. People will see us. I can't come out of hiding until Victoria gets married and _you _can't come out of hiding _ever _because your dead. Who knows what Pastor Galwells would do if he found out that something from the Land of the Dead was still here."

Scraps didn't seem to care about any of that and barked again.

"We _can't _go outside and were _not _going to." Victor said in a stern voice.

Scraps started barking loudly not giving up until he got his way. How could such a little dog be so demanding?

"Fine! I'll follow you, but could we at least go out the back door?" Victor said letting Scraps get his way so he could stop barking.

Scraps stopped barking and started wagging his tail again as he started making his way toward the back door.

Why couldn't Scraps wait till the morning to show him whatever he needed to show him? Victor stopped following Scraps, turned around and started heading toward the kitchen.

Scraps noticed he wasn't following him any more and started barking.

"I'm just going to check the time!" Victor called out to him. would people still be outside at this time? The less people that were outside, the less of a chance him and Scraps would get noticed.

Victor quickly walked into the kitchen and looked at the clock. His heart seemed to drop into his stomach as he read the time. It was almost 7:30. That was about the same time he met Emily for the first time.

Victor quickly cleared his head of the thought and hurried back over to the back door where Scraps was. Scraps looked up to him, wagging his tail a mile a minute. He seemed to be so excited. What was he so excited about?

Victor opened the back door and Scraps ran out. Victor closed the door behind him and said. "We have to be quite. We can't let any one know were here. We must _walk_,not run."

Scraps understood and started walking towards his destination. Victor followed him as he walked through the town. It was all so _gray_. The Land of the Dead had been so vivid and happy. Here in the Land of the Living it was so plain and kind of depressing. The Land of the Dead had been full of noise and lots of happy people. Here it was so quiet and no one seemed to enjoy life.

Victor heard foot steps, quickly grabbed Scraps and hid behind a building. It was the town crier. This was about the time he usually made is night announcements.

"Here, ye! Here, ye! Victor Van Dort still missing! Victoria Everglot due to be married to Lord Edmund Enright tomorrow!" yelled the town crier.

So Victoria was getting married. Now he could come out of hiding. Though what would happen when he came out of hiding? His dad said Pastor Galswells had been getting suspicious…

Victor saw the town crier walk to another street and Scraps started wiggling to get out of his arms. Victor set Scraps down and they started walking once more. His parents would probably be back at the house tomorrow so he had to get all his stuff ready tonight.

He should leave a note on his bed for his dad. He wouldn't want his dad to worry when he saw that Victor wasn't there. He didn't need to worry about his mother coming up to his room and finding the note because she never went into his room.

Where was Scraps taking him? Where ever he was taking him it had to be out of this town. Was he taking him to Emily's grave? Victor had no idea were Scraps was going to taking him.

Everyone must be inside tonight. Victor thought. Well no one was usually outside at night anyways except the town crier who was out all night.

Victor saw the exit to the town ahead. The only other thing out of the town was the church and the old stone bridge. Victor's prediction was right. Where ever Scraps was taking him wasn't in this town. Was Scraps taking him to the church? Though, why would Scraps take him there?

If the church was where Scraps was headed there was no way he was going in. It brought to many sad memories.

Scraps started barking happily as he saw the exit to the town up ahead.

"Shhh! You _must _be quiet Scraps. We don't want _anyone_ to know were out here." Victor whispered to him.

Scraps stopped barking and continued to wag his tail happily.

"Good boy," Victor said motioning for Scraps to keep walking.

Scraps started heading toward his destination. Scraps seemed to want to run but walked along side Victor.

They exited the town and walked onto the old stone bridge. Scraps stopped in the middle and stared up excitedly at him. Scraps woke him up just for _this_! So what? It was the bridge?

Victor got angry at Scraps and yelled at the little dead creature "Ok, it's the bridge. I've known about this bridge since I was three! What is the point of being here!"

Scraps only stared up at him joyfully as dozens of black crows flew out of the forest and around them. There was so many and they came so close that everything was pitch black as they were transported out of the Land of the Living.

**i think you can guess where they were transported. but is getting back to Emily really that easy? NO IT IS NOT! hehehehehe...next chapter will probably be up tomorrow. :) **


	10. Chapter 9

**new chapter. this chapter was extreamly easy to write. now its getting on to the adventure part of the story and Gudna is pernouced 'good-na' remember that.**

When the crows cleared, Victor saw that he was in a room that looked very much like Elder Gutknecht's. There were books every where and there was a podium. Where was he? He knew he was in the Land of the Dead, but _where_ in the Land of the Dead? He looked down at Scraps who was by his right side. Scraps looked just as confused as he was.

Victor looked up to the podium to see an old skeleton (not quite as old as Elder Gutknecht) sleeping on it. Dead people sleep? That's probably where the term 'rest in peace' came from.

"Um…Excuse me …sir?" Victor said in a quite voice but probably loud enough to wake him up.

The skeleton stirred a bit, then slowly lifted his skull and stared at him with wide eyes, shocked. Well he had no eyes, but Victor knew he could still see.

"How are you here…and your living…" the skeleton asked dumbfounded in a deep, ancient voice.

"I'm Victor," he said introducing himself. "Um…where am I?" he asked nervously. This was the first time Victor had struggled for words since he had met Emily for the first time. Were there two different lands for dead people? This guy obviously didn't know about him and Emily. Scraps was confused too, which made Victor more nervous.

"You're in the Land of the Dead," the skeleton replied shocked and confused.

"Yes, I know that, but where in the Land of the Dead?"

"You mean you've been here _before_?" he questioned bewildered.

"In the Land of the Dead yes, but here…"

The skeleton sighed calmly and said "Well we have a lot to talk about, don't we?"

"Yes," Victor said agreeing.

"Well you've introduced yourself," the skeleton began. "I'm Elder Gudna, and you, Victor are in the north ruins of the Land of the dead."

Ruins? Apparently the Land of the Dead was a lot bigger then he had thought.

"So you're an Elder. Like Elder Gutknecht?" Victor asked.

Elder Gudna's jaw dropped. Literally. It fell to the floor with a clang. Elder Gudna bent down, picked up his jaw, and reattached it.

"You…you know my brother?" Elder Gudna asked stunned,

Elder Gutknecht had a brother? Since when? Well he had only been in the Land of the Dead for about one day. Did he really expect himself to know everything?"

"Um…yes," Victor answered.

"How do you know him? How did you even get to the Land of the Dead? You're living…"

"A dead person brought me to the Land of the Dead the first time and my deceased dog," Victor said motioning with his hand to Scraps. "Brought me this time."

"How exactly did this all happen? Dead people don't just bring living people to the Land of the dead. Dead people _shouldn't _be in the Land of the Living at all…" Elder Gudna said still so confused.

Victor really didn't feel like explaining in all and now that he was back in the Land of the Dead, he wanted to get back to Emily as fast as he could so he said. "It's a long story. I just need to get back to…" back to what? What part in the Land of the Dead was it? Since Victor didn't know he said "To where your brother is. I need to get there as soon as possible."

"Elder Gutknecht' tower? Where so far away from there…It would take weeks to get there by foot."

Victor's heart plunged into his stomach. Weeks? It would take _weeks_ to get there?

"Couldn't you do a spell to transport me there?" Victor asked hopefully.

Elder Gudna shook his head no and said "The only spell that transports is the Ukrainian haunting spell which takes people who are in the Land of the Dead up to the Land of the Living and the Romanian bântuit spell, which takes dead people who are in the Land of the Living back to the Land of the Dead." **('bantuit' is Romanian for haunted)**

Victor sighed. He had to be optimistic. He was closer to getting to Emily then he would be in the Land of the Living.

"How long do you think it would take to get there?" Victor questioned.

"Well since your living, you need to sleep. So…" Elder Gudna started.

"I will not sleep." Victor said. "I will only sleep when I pass out from exhaustion."

"With no sleep? At all? Well with no sleep it would probably take about…at least two weeks."

Ok. Two weeks…that wasn't that long…

"Why are you in such a hurry to get back there any ways? A young man like you should be in the Land of the Living…at your age probably getting married."

"Like I said, it's a long story. I just need to get back. And I can't do that without your help." Victor said. What if Elder Gudna didn't go? Victor would need him to show him the way because Victor would have no idea where he was going.

"Well…It would be nice to see Elder Gutknecht again…"

Victor grinned and said "Oh, thank you! Thank you!"

"Hmmm…you're living. You're going to need food and water…Oh! I know!"

Elder Gudna turned around and started searching through a shelf of books he had behind his podium. After a few seconds he pulled out a small, dark green book.

He laid the book down on the podium and opened it. He started flipping through the pages trying to find the right page.

"Here it is. This spell will make people who are living not need food or water for a whole month. That is way over the time we need for the trip."

"Ok," Victor said.

Victor felt the excitement burning up inside of him. In two weeks he was going to see Emily. He felt that everything was going to be alright.

Elder Gudna walked over to a cabinet and pulled out a clear red-orange bottle. He handed Victor the bottle and said. "After I say the spell you drink this. Not all of it, just a sip. Ok?"

"Ok."

Elder Gudna did the spell and when he was done Victor rose the bottle to his lips and drank a sip. It didn't really taste like anything. Victor didn't feel any different.

"Did it work?" Victor asked.

"Yes it worked. The spell won't make you feel hungry or need food so that's why you don't feel any different."

"So…When do we leave?" Victor asked.

"Right now," Elder Gudna replied.

**hope you liked the chapter. ill probably have the next chapter up tomarrow. ill right it during my journalism class which is my elective :) well i did get the journalism teacher pissed at me today and if she see's me not doing what im supposed to be doing i dont even want to know what she'll do...she's also the history teacher and lets just say even though she SUPER short. shes like 4.5'' she is certianly scary. she got mad at me today and made me read a whole chapter in the history book. i think she was suprized that i actually knew were we were because i had been drawing Victor Van Dort with a pony tail and other stupid sketches like that in my history note book the whole time XD**


	11. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10 :) hope you like. yay! we have a new main charecter! Elder Gudna. pernouced 'Good-na'**

"Ok," Elder Gudna said. "We don't need much do we? Well you might want something to keep you warm…the Land of the Dead is particularly cold."

Victor and Elder Gudna were planning the trip. Elder Gudna had mapped the directions of were to go and they were about to leave any time now.

"It's ok. I like the cold." Victor said.

Elder Gudna stared at him weirdly and then looked down at Scraps.

"Who is this little guy?" he asked

"This is Scraps. My dog." Victor replied smiling.

Scraps barked happily hearing his name and wagged his tail.

"He sure is a sweet little dog. Well were ready to go." Elder Gudna said as he walked over to the door.

Victor and Scraps followed him and they walked outside to the cold air. Victor gasped at the sight.

The sight was beautiful. There were on a small hill with gray grass that went up to his knees. It was night (Well it was always night in the Land of the Dead) and there was a small beach right down the hill. The water was black and the sand seemed to be an extremely dark, red-black color.

Elder Gudna's tower seemed to be the only thing here. Why was Elder Gudna living here all alone? Well the place was beautiful. He could understand why he stayed here just not why he was here all alone.

"Its pretty, isn't it?" Elder Gudna asked beside him.

"Beautiful," Victor answered breathlessly. He wished Emily was here with him. She would have loved this. He felt his eyes fill with tears but he quickly wiped it away and tore his thoughts away from Emily.

Victor looked down at Scraps who seemed to be enjoying the tall grass. He was rolling around in it and barking joyfully.

"Well we better get going since you said you needed to get there as fast as possible." Elder Gudna said.

"Yes we should. Come on Scraps. Its time to go," Victor said clapping his hands together to get Scraps' attention.

Scraps stopped rolling around and looked up at him.

A slight breeze picked up and gracefully blew through the tall grass. Victor turned to Elder Gudna who pointed to the left and said "We go that way first."

Elder Gudna started walking and Victor followed with Scraps a few feet behind him.

They were quiet for a few minutes, and then Victor broke the silence and asked "Why do you live here all alone?"

"I like it here. After about a year after I died I wanted to explore the Land of the Dead. I wanted to travel around. I came across this place about six months into my journey and I haven't left since."

"How long have you lived here?" Victor questioned.

"About…eight hundred years." Elder Gudna answered simply.

Eight hundred years! Victor's mind wandered back to Emily. When he was dead, he would be with her _forever_.

Maybe he and Emily could live around here after they were married…with the tall, gray grass and the beautiful beach…

Why was he thinking of this now? He had two whole weeks ahead of him before he would see Emily again.

Did Emily miss him like he missed her? What if she had lost hope of them finding each other again? What if she didn't have those same feelings any more?

No, Emily wasn't like that. They were meant for each other.

The long trail of grass seemed to go on for hundreds and hundreds of miles.

Wait…how would he know how many days had passed? It was going to always stay dark so he wouldn't be able to count the days…Elder Gudna would probably know. He was an Elder after all.

"I've told you about me now you tell me about you. Were going to be traveling for two weeks and I think that's about long enough for you to tell me your _long_ story," Elder Gudna said taking Victor out of his thoughts.

Victor still didn't really feel like explaining it all. He wouldn't explain all of it. He would just say the parts that he had to.

"About…I think about…," Victor started. How long ago had it been? The days after Emily had been taken back to the Land of the Dead had just been a blur of depression and no hope.

"About…five days ago. I think," Victor said uncertainly. "I was supposed to get married."

"You didn't want to get married?"

"No. Not at all. You see, I was very shy. I had no friends and I didn't talk much at all. The marriage was arranged by my parents so they could be in a higher society. The day before the wedding, we were having the rehearsal I no matter how many times I heard those vows, I just couldn't remember them."

"What does this have to do with you being in the Land of the Dead?"

"I'm getting to that part. So after a little 'accident' that I had caused I ran off into the forest outside my town. I started trying to get the vows right but I just couldn't. I came up to an old oak tree in the woods and I said my vows perfectly there. I had bent down and put the wedding ring on what I had thought was a tree root.

"Apparently, it was the decayed hand of a dead bride. She rose out of the ground thinking I was saying my vows in order to marry her."

"So…she took you to the Land of the Dead? Weren't you freaked out by this dead woman coming out of the ground and declaring you her husband?

"To tell you the truth…no I wasn't freaked out at all." Victor replied.

"Why? You said you were very shy so…"

"Well, I had fallen in love with her at first sight. That's why I wasn't scared or freaked out."

Elder Gudna's eye sockets widened in shock.

"You…you fell in love with a dead person?" he asked.

"Yes. It was surprising for me too. So any ways. I spend the whole night and the next day in love with this corpse bride in the Land of the Dead. The you brother, Elder Gutknecht, told us that there was a complication with are marriage and the only way we could properly be married was for me to say my vows in the Land of the Living and drink from the wine of ages."

"Poison," Elder Gudna said.

"Yes poison. Every thing was going fine until Emily, the dead bride's, murderous ex-fiancée interrupted the wedding."

"Ex-fiancée?"

"Her dad had forbid her to marry him so she snuck off into the woods to marry him and he murdered her for her money. So, a little while after he had arrived and practically tried to kill me, he accidentally drank from the wine of ages, not realizing that it was poison, and died. Then the pastor of the church, my parents, the girl who I was supposed to marry parents, and five other men, separated me from Emily and the pastor told Elder Gutknecht to take all the dead people back to the Land of the Dead and to never return."

"So, since they were in the Land of the Living they had to follow there rules." Elder Gudna finished understanding.

"Yes, and yesterday, I found out that they had left Scraps behind and Scraps brought me here."

"And you want to get back as fast as you can because you want to get back to Emily?"

"Yes," Victor answered.

For the rest of the night they walked, Victor told Elder Gudna about Emily and Elder Gudna told Victor about the good times he and Elder Gutknecht had had when they had been still alive.

**cant wait to write the next chapter! i already have the main plot for it :) its going to be EXCITING! SO BRING A CUPCAKE!**


	12. Chapter 11

**yay. new chapter. i get to leave school early tomarrow and im going to write like crazy this weekend! :) anyways, hope you like the chapter. **

About three hours before, Victor and Elder Gudna had stopped talking because Victor had grown tired. They had been walking for about fifteen hours. How was Victor going to possible stay awake for a whole two weeks? This was going to be a lot harder then he had thought…

"You're really tired. I can tell," Elder Gudna said beside him.

"Yes, I am really tired, but I'm not going to sleep," Victor said with more confidence then he had.

"It's your choice." He said shrugging.

Victor looked down at Scraps who was walking by his left side with his head down. Scraps didn't seem to like all the walking either. He was probably bored.

Victor's legs felt like they were going to fall off, though he kept walking because every time he felt like he couldn't go any farther, he reminded himself that each step he took was closer to Emily.

It was a good thing that Elder Gudna had put the spell on him so he would have to eat because Victor was sure they had no food in the Land of the Dead and not eating would make him tired even more and slow him down. The faster he got to Emily, the better.

"We should take a break. You're not going to be able to go any further if we don't." said Elder Gudna.

No matter how much Victor wanted to keep going because he wanted to be with Emily as soon as he could, he knew Elder Gudna was right.

"Ok," Victor agreed sighing. "But only for a little while."

Victor plopped down onto the gray, cold, grass, exhausted. Scraps was glad to take a break and laid down by Victor.

Victor sat there for about three minutes getting sleepier and sleepier. He had to wake himself up or else he was going to fall asleep.

Victor felt his eye lids closing and forced them open. Victor got up, even though he _really _didn't want to.

"What are you doing? We've been barley resting for five minutes," Elder Gudna said who was sitting in the tall, gray grass a few feet away.

"I'm going to go down to the beach to see if the water will wake me up more. How cold is it?" Victor asked.

"Water here doesn't freeze, no matter how cold it gets it doesn't turn into ice, so it's pretty cold."

"Well that's good news. Hopefully it will wake me up more."

"I'm sure it will."

Victor started walking down the hill and Scraps got up to follow him, glad that they were going to do something besides walking.

Victor walked across the red-black sand which wasn't really sand. It was more like zillions and zillions of miniature pebbles.

Victor stopped were the black water started so he wouldn't get his shoes wet. The water had no waves at all. Not even little tiny ones. It was perfectly still. Like a giant black marble floor.

Victor looked at the dark gray-blue clouds. They looked kind of sad and lonely but peaceful at the same time.

Scraps ran into the water making it become unstill. It seemed to shatter like glass. Scraps joyfully splashed around unaffected by the ice cold water.

Victor smiled as Scraps happily played in the water.

Victor bent down about to cup the cold water to in his hands when he turned his head left and saw a trail of footprints in the sand.

Didn't Elder Gudna say that only he lived here? Were they Elder Gudna's footprints?

No, they looked like they had been made maybe two or three days ago. Whose were they? Was there someone here that Elder Gudna didn't know about?

Curious, Victor stood upright and started following the footprints. It was in the direction that he and Elder Gudna were headed to get to Emily.

Scraps saw that Victor had walked away, jumped out of the water and ran up next to him.

Victor didn't feel tired at all any more. He was curious to who these footprints belonged too.

He should have told Elder Gudna where he was going. Elder Gudna would probably find him if he realized he was gone.

Although Victor was curious to who the footprints belonged too, he had a bad feeling. Like he should turn around and go back to where Elder Gudna was.

Victor looked down at Scraps who was walking by his right side. Scraps seemed to have the same feeling too. How bad could it be? Who ever it was, they couldn't be that bad…Or could they?

After about fifteen minutes of fast walking, Victor came to the end of the long trail. The footprints ended at a dark cave. Well it wasn't completely dark; there was a small fire inside of it. Who ever the footprints belonged too, they were in this cave.

Victor took a step into the cave but Scraps did not follow. He whined and backed away from the cave.

"It's ok Scraps. You don't have to come in if you don't want to. You can stay out here and see if Elder Gudna ever comes looking for us."

Scraps seemed to like that idea, backed a few feet away from the cave, and sat down on the dark sand.

Victor turned back to the cave and took a deep breath. He walked over to a pile of long skinny sticks that was by the fire, took one, and lit it so that he would have a source of light while he was walking through the cave.

Victor held the fiery torch and started walking slowly through the cave. Why was someone here? In this cave?

The cave was silent. Dead silent. All Victor could hear was the sound of his own footsteps echoing through the cave.

Was there really someone in here? It didn't seem like there was anybody else in here. It was too quiet and Victor hadn't seen anything for the last six or so minutes.

Maybe he should turn back. Scraps was waiting out there all alone and Elder Gudna was probably wondering where they were.

A sudden breeze seemed to come out of no where and blew out his torch. Victor had expected to be in pitch black darkness…But he wasn't. there was a dim light still in the cave.

Victor looked from left to right not seeing anything.

"Well. Well. It seems that little Victor has returned to the Land of the Dead," a voice sneered behind him.

Victors eyes widened in horror recognizing the voice and slowly turned around to see the dead figure of Lord Barkis.

**O_O Lord Barkis. What the heck is he going to do? Seriosuly not even i know. we will both find out tomarrow! BTW dont litter. plz throw away the remains of your cupcake.**


	13. Chapter 12

**sorry the chapter took so long to upload. i was going to make this moment really intresting and lots of action but then i got inspiration for something better for the story in the future. :) it took long to upload because i do have _other_ corpse bride things to do. like my corpse bride deviant ART account and my you-tube account. everything has the same username.**

The footprints had been Barkis'. Lord Barkis didn't come at him like Victor had been expecting. Why was he in this cave? This was probably the reason that made he and Scraps have a bad feeling.

Lord Barkis seeming to know what he was thinking said, "Your little dead friends apparently didn't like me much so they took me out here. Far from where they are."

Victor could only glare at him, furious. Victor would never forgive him. He had killed Emily. Taken life away from her. Why did this wicked man even bother talking to him?

"How exactly did you get back?" Barkis questioned through clenched teeth returning Victor's glare.

Victor just kept on glaring and was quiet. What was the point? What was he to Lord Barkis?

Victor then realized that the more time he stayed here, the more time it would take to get to Emily. Victor turned from Lord Barkis and started walking towards where Scraps was waiting.

"Where are you going?" Lord Barkis asked furious.

"Why do _you _care?" Victor said stopping in his tracks and turning back to him.

"I still don't like you." He said like that explained everything.

"Well, take your hate towards me and times it by a thousand. That's how much I hate you." Victor snapped as he turned around and started walking fast towards the exit to the cave.

Victor was grateful that Lord Barkis didn't follow. Soon he was walking in pitch black since he didn't have his torch any more. Victor was a bit nervous about that because of his clumsiness. Victor had always kept a little candle in his room just in case he needed to get up in the middle of the night though he always seemed to trip on something anyways.

It reminded him of the time when he was twelve and he had waken up in the middle of the night because he was hungry. He had climbed out of bed and started making his way to the kitchen. It had been pitch black (Victor hadn't realized at the time because he was half asleep) if he had realized it he would have immediately got up and relit the three candles he had on at night, which he had found out that his father was blowing out after Victor had fallen asleep so the candles wouldn't be wasted.

Victor had made his way through the upstairs hallway that led to his stair case. Victor hadn't predicted _when_ he was going to need to go down the stairs and had fallen. Victor had tumbled all the way down the stairs and landed on his back at the bottom. He hadn't been hurt but his heart had been pounding from his shock.

He had totally awakened by now and didn't bother to go back upstairs. He had crawled over to the couch and slept there till he was awoken by his mother who was yelling at him saying proper people shouldn't sleep on couches.

Victor's clumsiness had made him anything but proper. He could always see the disappointment in his mother's eyes every time he had fallen or made a total fool of himself. He had always tried his best to please his mother but that didn't really work out with her having to practically buy him a new set of clothes every week because he had fallen and ripped his clothes or something like that. Victor had asked once why they simple couldn't just sew the rips and tares in his clothes and she had said 'Clothes are what people are judged by. They can't be less then perfect.'

Victor's mother had always seemed to just care about being in a higher society and clothes.

A dim light brought Victor out of his thoughts as he saw the small fire that was by the exit of the cave. Victor would have ran towards it but he knew he would fall. He always fell when he ran…Like the first time he had met Emily…

Victor felt tears falling down his face as he exited the cave. He passed by Scraps who was looking at him curious as he started walking back towards the spot where he and Elder Gudna had stopped to rest. He looked up and saw that Elder Gudna was walking towards him a few feet away. Probably wondering where he had gone.

Elder Gudna saw his tears and asked in a worried voice, "Are you ok?"

"I'm fine. I just miss Emily," Victor said putting his head down again. They were still so far away from her…

"Well then we should start walking again."

"Yes," Victor said simply in a voice that was just barley a whisper.

They walked in silence for a couple of minutes before Elder Gudna asked, "Why were you in that cave?"

Victor told him the story without looking up. Tears still poured down his face.

"Is he still there now? Would he have any reason to come after you after the whole scene in the Land of the Living?" Elder Gudna asked when Victor was done telling his story.

Victor shook his head no still looking down. "He has no reason to come after me. He's dead. He has no purpose to. He still there though."

"Well that's good. I wouldn't know what to do if he was coming after you. I don't have any books with spells with me and I wouldn't be able to do any thing."

Victor only nodded. Elder Gudna could tell that Victor wanted to stop talking because he wanted to think so Elder Gudna was silent.

Victor usually would have felt embarrassed crying in front of someone but ever since Emily had been taken back to the Land of the Dead, Victor hadn't really cared. He had been too depressed.

Victor remembered that horrible, sad day. After Emily had left, the men had carried him back to the Everglots house and locked him in a room because they knew he would try to leave.

After they had thrown him into the room, and he hadn't gotten up. He had just laid there sobbing for hours. He hadn't eaten at all that day. He had felt numb. Like all the life had been taken out of him. He had screamed for Emily in his sleep.

Victoria had come in that night to see him sobbing on the floor. 'Victor,' Victoria had said kneeling to the ground where he lay sobbing. 'She's gone. You just have to except that.' She had saying in a voice that seemed to know that he was _never _going to except it.

Victor hadn't replied. He had only laid there crying.

Victoria had seemed to know that he wasn't going to calm down so she had gotten up and left without a word.

Now he was back in the Land of the Dead traveling back to Emily. They must be meant for each other to have this miracle happen.

_Well_, Victor thought. _Day one is almost complete. Just thirteen more days to go. _

Victor sighed. That felt like an eternity, but Victor kept walking through the tall, gray grass, growing closer and closer to Emily with each step.

**ya i know, not that interesting. i kinda wanted this chapter to explain something from Victors past and while i was writing this i thought. 'wait...what happened _right after_ Emily had gone back to the Land of the Dead? what had Victor felt like those hours _right after_ Emily left?' so i created the whole sobbing on the floor thing. :) hope you like.**


	14. Chapter 13

The day had dragged on yesterday and now it was there second day of traveling. Victor was surprised that he wasn't tired yet though he was glad. Elder Gudna hadn't said a word since he had returned from the cave where Lord Barkis was. Victor had stopped crying but he still looked depressed. He had his arms wrapped around him and his head was down. Victor wondered what his expression looked like.

Scraps didn't seem to mind all the walking any more but he wasn't happy. Scraps didn't seem to like Victor's depressed mood. Victor could understand that. Scraps had always been a great companion. He had been Victor's only friend when he was little. Victor remembered how he and Scraps had become best friends.

Victor had been taking a walk through town one day trying to find interesting butterflies to draw. He had only been nine years old at the time. He had walked passed an old abandoned house that was for sale and heard a small, weak bark, coming from a bush by the house.

Scraps had emerged from the bush, dirty and skinny. Victor had been scared of him at first but his fear soon went away when the little puppy had come up to him and started licking Victor's small hand.

Victor had bent down and started playing with him. He had soon found out that the puppy had lived in a bush full of little scraps of food that he had taken from the garbage. And that's why Victor named him Scraps.

Victor had snuck Scraps into his house and had fed him and given him a bath. That had been the first time Victor had ever _been _happy. Victor had still felt like something was missing in his life though, but he was happy to have Scraps to comfort him.

Victor's mother had come home and had a huge fit about the dog. His father had calmed her down but she still said 'no' to keeping Scraps.

Victor didn't remember what was said after that but he remembered his father going into a separate room with his mother to talk about the dog. She had come out saying 'you may keep it in your room and outside. I don't want it in any other place in the house.'

Victor and Scraps had done everything together after that. Victor remembered one time where his mother had taken him to the best artist in town so he could get his picture drawn. She had ignored Victor's complaints about not wanting too. There weren't many paintings of Victor because Victor didn't like them. He had _never _liked pictures of himself. He still didn't.

When they got there he had refused to do it but some how she had gotten him to do it if Scraps was in the picture with him. The picture was still hanging on his wall by his desk in his room. Victor hadn't let his mother hang it any where else.

Victor then tripped over something which tore him away from his thoughts. He landed in the tall, soft grass so he was unharmed, but he was startled.

"Are you ok?" Elder Gudna asked in a concerned voice.

"Yeah. I just tripped over something," Victor said still on the ground. What had tripped him? It had just seemed like perfect, untouched grass for miles. He looked back. He had tripped on a rock.

Victor turned his head and looked up to see and giant pile of huge, sharp, rocks blocking there path.

"Is that supposed to be there?" Victor asked Elder Gudna who had apparently hadn't noticed them either when they were walking.

"Hmm. I don't remember…it has been along time since I've been here…but it doesn't matter. It shouldn't be hard to pass."

_Yeah, for normal people. I'm going to get killed trying to climb through that! _Victor thought to himself.

"Is there a way around it?" Victor asked getting up. There _had _to be a way around it. Victor had practically killed himself simple trying to get a plate but _this_? His clumsiness couldn't bare this.

"No, but does it matter?" Elder Gudna asked.

"Um…yes…It matter's _a lot_...I'm _very, very _clumsy…," Victor shuddered at just the thought of him trying to climb through that.

"Hmm…this may be a challenge then…" Elder Gudna said as he walked over to the rocks and started climbing them. When he was at the top he peered over all the rocks trying to see how big it was.

"How bad is it?" Victor called up to him nervously.

"Not bad. Once you get up here its about thirty feet across then you go down again."

That wasn't that bad…well Victor wouldn't know till he got up there…if he _did _get up there.

Elder Gudna seemed to know Victor was still nervous so he said. "Don't worry, if you need help ill help you."

Victor looked down when he saw Scraps trot over to the rocks and jump on one. The Scraps started jumping from one to the other till he was next to Elder Gudna.

Victor hesitated but he walked over to the rocks and slowly climbed on top on the first one. The rocks weren't piled up that high. It was only about ten feet up. Victor slowly stood up using a big rock to balance him. It reminded him of when he was trying to get that one plate…but he fell. No, Victor wouldn't think of that. He shouldn't think about falling. He needed to concentrate.

Victor took a deep breath and started climbing onto the next rock. He put his foot up on a crack in one of the rocks so he could push himself up but his foot slipped. He didn't fall but his heart was racing.

He took a couple of more deep breaths and finally heaved himself up onto the rock. He looked up to see that he only needed to climb onto one more rock and then he would be at the top.

Victor was filled with confidence and climbed onto the next rock easily and was finally at the top.

Victor looked over the rocks. Elder Gudna had been right. It wasn't bad at all. It was mostly flat rocks except a few drops and dips here and there.

It didn't take long for them to walk across it, though it did take a while for Victor to get down. Elder Gudna helped him though.

Once they were on at the bottom they started walking again. The rocks hadn't been that bad. Victor only had a few scratches, though his hands did sting from all the scratches and blisters that the rough rocks had given him.

They walked for about two hours sharing stories. Victor told Elder Gudna how his life had never felt complete till he had met Emily and Elder Gudna told him about what it was like in the Land of the Living nine hundred years ago.

They soon got tired of talking and were silent for another five hours. It gave Victor time to think though. Victor had always liked thinking.

Victor's mind wandered over to his dad. What did he think of Victor's disappearance? Did he think that Victor was just staying in the forest like the plan?

When he got back to Emily, he would take her to see his father. Victor wanted her to meet him.

Victor's legs began to grow tired again so he suggested to Elder Gudna that they take a ten minute break.

Elder Gudna agreed and Victor got down on his knee's and started playing with Scraps.

Scraps was always so happy. Victor smiled to himself as he watched Scraps roll around in the grass and bark in delight.

Victor wasn't tired like he wanted to go to sleep; he was just tired from all the walking.

"So," Victor said to Elder Gudna who was sitting next to him. "How are we doing? Do we need to go faster or…?"

"Were doing fine. I had been expecting you to go slower since you would be tired but you don't seem tired at all."

"I know…it's weird. Maybe it's because before Scraps took me here I had been sleeping more then usual."

"Could be."

After the ten minutes was up, they got up and started walking. Victor and Elder Gudna talked as they continued there journey.


	15. Chapter 14

It was now they're third day of traveling and they were getting really bored. Victor was now super tired and was practically passing out while standing up.

"I think we need to take another break," Elder Gudna said to him.

Victor hadn't realized that his eyes were closed and his head was down so it startled him.

"No we don't," Victor mumbled tiredly.

"You should at least go down to the beach and try to wake yourself up with the cold water." Elder Gudna suggested.

Victor thought it over and said. "Ok"

It wouldn't take that long. And the more tired Victor was, the slower he was going to go and if he went slow it was going to take him longer to get back to Emily.

"You could wait here," Victor said to Elder Gudna and then he turned to Scraps. "You want to come with me Scraps?"

Scraps barked agreeing and followed Victor as he started walking down toward the beach.

Victor walked across the red-black sand and over to the water. He stopped at the edge of the still, marble black, water. He was about to take his shoes off when he noticed his clothes. Torn and muddy from the rocks and the mud was probably from when he fell down.

Victor then felt his hair. It needed to be washed. They didn't have soap here so Victor decided he was just going to give it a little rinse.

Victor took off his shoes and laid them a few feet away from the shore line. He then rolled up his pant legs up to his knees so they wouldn't get wet. He wasn't going in far. Victor didn't know how to swim very well so it wouldn't be the best idea to go in any further then that.

Victor walked back to the water and put his right foot in to test the temperature. Just like Elder Gudna had said, it was freezing cold like ice. It would defiantly wake him up. It wasn't that much colder then Emily's blue, stone cold skin.

Scraps seemed to want to stay on the beach and dig pointless holes in the sand. Victor then walked slowly, all the way into the water until the water reached his knees. He bent his head down a started rinsing his hair with the cold water.

Victor splashed some water on his face to wake him up. It didn't work. He was still tired. Victor sighed and looked back over to Scraps who had stopped digging holes in the sand. Scraps stared at him hard. Like he knew something Victor didn't.

Everything seemed to get quieter then it had before. Victor couldn't hear the wind or anything. It was like someone muted his ears.

Victor was still looking at Scraps when suddenly something large burst out of the water and pulled Victor down below the surface. Victor held his breath, terrified and tried to make sense of what was happening. Something was dragging down him down deeper and deeper into the water by his shirt collar.

Victor would have normally been screaming but he had to save every last bit of breath he had.

He hadn't wanted it to end like this but… if he died he would be taken back to where they greet new arrivals. That's where Emily would be. Soon he would be holding her in his arms. They would be together again.

Victor went limp and relaxed not terrified any more but quite peaceful and happy. Everything went black as Victor was pulled deeper and deeper into the cold water.

* * *

><p>Scraps stopped digging holes in the sand and looked up to where his master was in the water. Something bad was about to happen. He knew it. His master turned to look at him. Couldn't he see that something bad was about to happen?<p>

Then something shot out of the water and pulled his master down into the water. His master was still living! He couldn't breathe under there! He would die!

Scraps ran into the water only to return seconds later realizing he couldn't swim. Well he could swim, but since he was just bones and didn't breathe, he just sank to the bottom.

What about that other skeleton that had been walking with them? He could probably help! Scraps ran back up the hill to where the skeleton was sitting down in the tall gray grass.

"Where is Victor Scraps?" the skeleton asked him.

Scraps knew his master was named Victor, but he always preferred to call him master more.

Scraps barked and jerked his head towards the beach. The skeleton only looked at him. Didn't it know that something was wrong? Scraps barked again and again jerking his head towards the beach.

"Is something wrong?" the skeleton questioned concerned.

Scraps barked, confirming and started heading back down towards the beach. It might be already too late. His master could already be dead. The skeleton seemed to get that this was an emergency and quickly headed down toward the beach. So fast that Scraps had to jog to keep up.

The skeleton stopped at the shore line not seeing Victor any where.

"Victor!" he yelled over the black marble water.

Getting no reply, the skeleton plunged into the water. Scraps not having much hope that his master was alive, watched as the water cleared of the ripples that the skeleton had caused.

* * *

><p>Victor seemed to be slipping farther and farther away from life. He didn't mind it though. He would get to be with Emily. Victor didn't care how he died, just that he would be with Emily when he did.<p>

Everything seemed peaceful at the moment, but that ended quickly. He now felt pain. Pain in his chest. He couldn't breathe. There seemed to be something pulling tight in his chest.

He then felt pressure on his chest. It seemed like it was trying to the tight thing out of him. It worked. Victor coughed out what ever was pulling tighter and tighter in his chest. Then there was no pain. Victor's mussel's relaxed yet everything was still black.

Where was Emily? Why was everything so dark? Why didn't he hear Ms. Plum's voice yelling 'New arrival!' over and over? Why was everything _so _silent?

Then a familiar voice yelled. "Victor! Victor, are you all right? Please, Victor, wake up…"

Victor's eyes then snapped open and he saw that he was looking into the face of Elder Gudna. Victor gasped air which came easily to him.

Victor sat up and saw that he was on the beach where he had been before. What had happened? Why was he on the beach?

Then everything came flooding back to him. Something had pulled him under the water while he had been rinsing his hair. What had pulled him under?

"Victor, are you ok?" Elder Gudna asked extremely concerned.

"Wha-What happened?" Victor stuttered.

"There was a shark. It was dead but still blood-thirsty, and you don't find blood in the Land of the Dead. So it smelled your blood and came after you."

Dazed, Victor got up and mumbled, "Oh"

"Are you sure you're ok? You just almost _died_."

"I'm ok." Victor sighed sadly. He had been so close to being with Emily. "How long was I out?"

"Only a few minutes."

"Good, less keep walking then," Victor said walking up the hill soaking wet and they started walking once again, towards Emily.


	16. Chapter 15

**Yay! Finally updated…sorry it's been a while. I was sick for a week and then I had to make up a lot of school work. Sadly I don't have a laptop and this computer is REALLY slow….anyways. New chapter. Here's the update on what's happening in the Land of the Living. **

William Van Dort was walking back to his house after getting some food from the town market. He had been very spaced out lately worrying about his son, Victor.

He didn't know why he was worried. Victor had probably just heard the news about Victoria's wedding, knew that he and his mother would be coming home, and left, but why did he still have this nervous feeling inside of him? Victor was only nineteen years old…could he survive on his own?

He probably could, William decided. Victor had matured a lot in the last few days. He knew how to stand up for himself and William guessed that he must be fearless because he had spent a whole day and a half in the Land of the Dead! Not only that, but he was more _comfortable _with being in the Land of the Dead and being surrounded by a bunch of corpses.

Victor wasn't shy any more at all…so why was he worried? It was probably because Victor was just so _clumsy_. Victor could barley walk without tripping over his own two feet! Who knows what was out there in that forest…

How was Victor getting food? William had noticed that none of the food was gone when he had come home to see Victor missing.

Well he did have Scraps with him to keep him company. Scraps was a good and loyal dog. He wouldn't let Victor get into any danger.

William walked up the steps to the front porch of his house and opened the door. He walked in, shut the door behind him and walked over to the kitchen table were he set down the bags full of food and started putting them into the cupboards.

It felt weird not having Victor around. Victor had been gone for almost a week now. It was now his forth day without Victor to be exact.

He was used to the house being quite. Victor had always locked himself in his room to read, study, or do other things. But usually he would always hear some kind of thud or crash when Victor dropped something or fell down the stairs (Which he had done so many times you just stop counting and get used to it) that would break the silence.

William shut the last cabinet door when he was done putting away the food just as his wife, Nell Van Dort walked into the room. She wasn't happy that Victor had disappeared because that meant she couldn't be in a higher society because Victor wasn't married to Victoria.

"Victor just thinks he can run off any time he wants…," Nell mumbled to herself angrily as she came into the room.

She looked up noticing the he was back and said. "Are they still talking about Victoria's wedding?"

"Yes," William answered simply shifting his feet wishing this conversation would stop.

"I don't see what the big deal is," she sneered.

William didn't know what to say so he just said. "Hmm."

Nell didn't seem to like his lack of conversation so she turned and left the room. William sighed, went over to the couch that was by the kitchen and sat down.

He looked over to the clock to see that it was almost 5 p.m. It was already starting to get dark.

He knew he should worry about Victor but he couldn't help it. He was probably fine. There was quite a big lake some where in that forest. That was where the town got most of they're water. So Victor could get his water easily.

He still had this nervous feeling inside of him. He took a couple of deep breath to relax himself.

His mind then wandered over to Victoria. She was married to that Lord Edmund Enright. William had heard of him before. He lived on the other side of town. He was about at least twenty-five or twenty-six years old. Other then that he hadn't heard much about him.

Victoria's wedding had been such a big deal. The Everglots were the richest people in town. Almost the whole town had showed for the wedding.

Everything seemed to be all weird and awkward now ever since Victor had fallen in love with Emily the Corpse Bride and she had taken him down to the Land of the Dead. Nothing seemed to be normal any more. The feeling would probably go away in a few months. Then everything would feel a bit normal.

There was then a load bang at the front door. Who could that be? Why were they, who ever they were, here?

William got up from the couch and walked over to the door. He opened it a wave of horror hit him as he saw Pastor Galswells standing there. William knew what he was here for.

He hid his scared expression and said in an innocent voice. "Pastor Galswells. What brings you here?"

Pastor Galswells ignored his question and said, "Your son, Victor, where is he?"

"I don't know," William answered honestly. He _didn't _know where Victor was. He _guessed _that he was in the forest but he didn't have any real facts that he was.

"Mr. Van Dort. This is serious. If that boy has gone back to the Land of the Dead…"

"I know he's not in the Land of the Dead. I assure you that, but even if he was it wouldn't matter would it? You can't _force _him not to go to the Land of the Dead. He's free to go there if the leader or what ever says he can be there. Isn't that right?" William said.

He knew Victor wasn't in the Land of the Dead and he would probably never get back, but Pastor Galswells was really annoying him right now.

Pastor Galswells didn't seem to know what to say about this. He knew he was right.

"Yes…I suppose that _is _right," Pastor Galswells said glaring at him. "Sorry to have bothered you." He said through gritted teeth and walked away.

William closed the door, walked up to his room where he sat down on a chair in the room and got lost in his thoughts.


	17. Chapter 16

Victor didn't know how much longer he was going to be able to stay awake. It was now there fifth day of traveling and Victor could barley keep himself upright. Yesterday Victor had been quite cranky from lack of sleep. He had been quite sarcastic and rude but Elder Gudna seemed to understand that he didn't mean what he said.

Victor had been able to keep himself awake yesterday because the day before he had been almost killed by a deceased shark that was thirsty for his blood. That did tend to give someone a little bit of anxiety. You know, just a bit.

Victor knew he wouldn't be able to stay awake for another nine and a half days, but he had to. Sleep meant stopping, and stopping meant not moving forward, and not moving meant that it would take longer to get to Emily.

Victor's mind was thinking about his father. He was worried since Victor had just vanished from the Land of the Living. He would explain everything to his father when he would visit him and he would bring his lovely Emily. Victor's mind was pondering the fact that Pastor Galswells had told Elder Gutknecht that nobody who was dead could come to the Land of the Living. He and Emily would find a way though.

He wondered what Pastor Galswells was thinking about his disappearance. Did he know he had made it back to the Land of the Dead? There was so many questions Victor had…

But none of his questions were important to him right now. The only thing on his mind was getting back to Emily. That was what was truly important right now.

And what would happen after he got back to Emily? How would they marry when they were forbidden to go back to the Land of the Living? Maybe Victor could some how get Pastor Galswells to give in…though that was certainly a long shot. Like Pastor Galswells _listened _to people! What a joke!

There had to be some way. There had to be at least something in all those whatever-million-books Elder Gutknecht had about this. Surly with Elder Gudna there they could find something.

He could get his father to attend the wedding and Emily's parents.

The thought seemed to freeze in his mind. Emily's parents. He had never thought of Emily's parents. What were they like? Were they even dead yet? Lord Barkis had been probably in his late forties when he died. So it couldn't have been that long ago when he killed Emily.

Victor felt hate and fury flooding his emotions of the thought that Lord Barkis had killed his beautiful bride. Victor knew he would always hate Lord Barkis. He could never forgive him for what he had done to Emily.

Victor fury died down. Thinking about Barkis wasn't going to get him any where. Victor brushed the thought of Lord Barkis aside and got his attention back to his original subject

So Emily's parents could very well be alive. Probably in there seventies or eighties. Victor was interested in what they were like. Would they be like Emily? How would they react to him? Would they approve or disapprove of him?

Victor sighed. He knew he wouldn't know the answers till he actually got back to Emily. He didn't know why he bothered with all this thinking now.

That was one of the things Victor liked about the trip. All the talking had worn down and Victor could just think for hours. Sometimes thing was a good thing and sometimes it was a bad thing. Good because Victor could sort things out and bad because his mind might wand over to Emily and think about how he wasn't with her right now…

Victor shook the thought from his head and scanned through his thoughts to find something else to think about.

His thoughts fell upon his past. How much he had changed since he had met Emily. he remembered all his little journeys to find butterflies to sketch and study. Though Victors personality had changed, he's interests didn't. He still did like butterflies and writing. Victor wished he had his journal so he could write all about this experience, how he had fallen in love with Emily.

He then realized how much he missed doing the things he used to do. He would get to do that. He would do it when he got back to Emily. They would have a wonderful life together…they both loved playing piano and Victor just adored Emily's graceful dancing.

It made Victor happy to think about his future with Emily. Just being in her presence was enough to fill him with joy that would last forever.

A small bark took Victor away from his thoughts. He turned around to see that Scraps had stopped walking and was sitting in the knee-high, gray grass.

Victor sighed in annoyance. Did the dead pup always have to be so…um…_annoying_? Victor knew he didn't really think this; he was just cranky from lack of sleep.

"Come on Scraps. We need to keep moving. Let's go," Victor ordered to Scraps.

Scraps did get up, but not to get on with the walking. Scraps took a few steps back from where he was, raised his dead head up high, and made a big scene of sitting down.

"I think he's refusing," Elder Gudna said next to him suddenly which made Victor jump up surprised.

"Refusing? What do you mean he's in refusing!" Victor questioned Elder Gudna angrily. They _really _didn't need this right now! Why wouldn't the dog just do as he was told!

"He's bored of traveling. He seems to want to take a break and do something fun. He doesn't want to walk anymore," Elder Gudna informed him calmly. Victor on the other hand, wasn't so calm about it.

"_Bored of traveling_?" Victor yelled. Victor wished he wasn't so cranky but he knew his attitude wasn't going to calm down any time soon.

Victor marched over to where Scraps was and yelled. "Listen dog! We don't not have time to take breaks and do something _fun! _Now come on! Let's go!"

Scraps simply scooted around to where his back was facing him and his head up still refusing.

"Ugh!" Victor bellowed and stomped off away from the dog.

Elder Gudna turned to Victor and said "Scraps isn't going to go a step further unless we take a break and stop all the walking for a while. A little break wouldnt be that bad, would it?"

Victor crossed his arms over his chest and said stubbornly. "Yes! Yes it would!"

Victor wasn't the stubborn type. He had never thrown a tantrum in his life. It had always been, do what your parents tell you. Don't question them. And Victor had been to shy to throw a fit and he was too scared of what his mother would have done if he did.

This somehow made Victor feel like a kid again. Even though he had never thrown a fit in his life, he felt like a child. Maybe it was because most children were always cranky and that was what Victor was right now. Cranky.

Victor was tempted just to leave Scraps there and keep walking but he could never to that to his dog. Victor loved him too much. What would he do without Scraps? Scraps was his best friend.

This seemed to soften Victor up. He went over to where Scraps was sitting and plopped down next to him cross-legged, arms still crossed.

Scraps brightened up and his tail started wagging. He jumped into Victors lap and happily looked up at him.

"Oh you're just happy you get your way," Victor said to Scraps but he petted his skull anyways.

Victor and Scraps played around in the tall grass for a while. Victor realized how hard it must be for Scraps to keep up. The grass was towering over him and he probably couldn't see where he was going very well. Victor felt sorry for him.

Scraps wanted to go down to the beach, so Victor got up and started walking down the hill towards the beach. Elder Gudna had decided to stay where he was and let Victor and Scraps go alone.

Victor wasn't cranky anymore. Ever since he had plopped down next to Scraps his crankiness had passed and had been followed by tiredness. Each minute he was getting more and more tired

Even though they had been traveling next the shoreline for five days now, Victor was still fascinated by the sight. The red-black sand. The still marble black water. It was all so beautiful.

Victor watched as Scraps happily jumped around in the sand and started digging holes here and there.

Victor relaxed his mussels and closed his eyes. He then opened them to find himself not on the beach, but in the forest at home.

How was he in the forest at home? What happened? He had closed his eyes for one second and then suddenly, he was back in the Land of the Living.

Victor looked around. He was by the place where he and Emily had been transported when he had tricked her into coming to the Land of the Living with him (He still felt bad about that), saying he wanted her to meet his parents, and went off to Victoria house so he could tell her that he had fallen in love with a corpse.

He noticed that he was alone. Scraps and Elder Gudna weren't there with him. What had happened? How was he going to get back to Emily now?

"Victor?" asked a wonderfully, beautiful, familiar voice.

Victor spun around to see Emily, beautiful as ever, standing before him. Emily must have called him here. That's how he had gotten here!

"Emily?" he said walking over to her. He looked into those glorious, deep sunken eyes. They looked into his so big and bright.

Before she could answer he heard someone calling his name in the distance. It sounded like…Elder Gudna? So he was here?

"Victor?" he heard Elder Gudna say again. He sounded closer then before.

Victor turned around to see no one there. He walked forward but tripped over his own two feet. His eyes snapped open when he hit the ground.

Victor's eyes blinked rapidly as he tried to process what happened. He was staring into gray grass. Then Elder Gudna came over to him and bent down next to him as Victor put himself into the sitting position.

"Was I sleepwalking?" Victor asked Elder Gudna.

"Yes. You fell asleep while standing up and started sleep walking. You walked up the hill and just kept on walking."

"How far did I walk?"

"Only about twenty to thirty feet. That isn't good though. You _need _to get some sleep Victor."

"But I _was _just sleeping."

Elder Gudna gave him a look and said. "Victor you slept two to three minutes tops. That _isn't _enough."

"I'll sleep when I pass out from exhaustion," Victor smiled crossing his arms having just a bit of fun being stubborn.

Elder Gudna just sighed and shook his head smiling

**Victors head was just a little off when he woke up...XD i like stubborn Victor...its cute :) anyways...im half way through the story! :) well half way or almost half way...**

.


	18. Chapter 17

_Well we've been traveling for six days now, _Victor thought. _Only eight more days to go._

Victor sighed. That felt like an eternity. Victor was glad though that Scraps wasn't being so stubborn anymore.

Scraps had always been a loyal dog. He had always done what he was told. But yesterday wasn't the first time that Scraps demanded something. Well there had been the night Scraps had brought Victor to the Land of the Dead but he had a good reason for that. Victor was still confused on how Victor and Scraps had ended up at Elder Gudna's tower instead of Elder Gutknecht's.

There was a lot of questions and things to get sorted out but that was to do later. They first had to get back to Emily.

Victor looked over to Elder Gudna who was carrying Scraps. Victor would have carried him but holding Scraps, walking, and not sleeping for six days would have made Victor collapse.

Elder Gudna was carrying Scraps because it had been only brought to his attention yesterday that the poor little pup could barley see over the knee-high grass.

And since Elder Gudna was dead, he didn't get tired and he didn't need to sleep. He could if he chose too but he didn't need too. So Elder Gudna was able to stay awake the whole trip without struggling to stay awake or even feel tired.

Victor was trying his absolute best to stay awake but it was extremely hard. Victor could tell he was sleep walking for a couple of minutes every now and then. His eyes felt one hundred pounds heavy.

Victor's mind seemed to be blank. He felt more tired if he was thinking so he didn't think. His mind was totally blank.

Victor seemed to be walking in a zombie like state. His head hanging down and his arms were limp at his side. He could barley keep himself up and he knew he was probably going to collapse soon. He was surprised he was still able to keep walking.

Victor was doing his best. He was trying so hard. As long as he kept doing that, he would make it to his Emily.

Elder Gudna shifted Scraps in his arms. He looked over to Victor who was struggling very hard to keep himself conscious.

_Poor guy. _Elder Gudna thought. _He's been through so much. _

Elder Gudna's thoughts were on his brother, Gutknecht. Elder Gudna had always preferred to call him Gutknecht instead of Elder Gutknecht. He had always called him that.

It had been so long since he had seen his brother. What was he like now? How was he doing?

Elder Gudna remembered how much trouble he and Gutknecht used to get into when they were alive and only kids. Their parents would get so mad at some of the things they had done.

Gutknecht had been Elder Gudna's best friend. They loved to study and do things most other kids there age thought was boring.

They had both grown up and never married. Instead they buried their self's in there studies.

As they had grown older, they had drifted apart. They still kept in contact, but not much. Elder Gudna remembered feeling lonely during that time. He had wished for someone close to talk to.

But at the time his studies seemed more important. He had fully dedicated himself to study.

Now he was going back to see his brother. He was going back to civilization. Well civilization in the Land of the Dead.

What would it be like? Elder Gudna couldn't remember anything from when he had been there. It had been too long ago and he hadn't stayed long enough to be able to remember it after all this time.

Elder Gudna looked down at Scraps who was looking up happily at him in his arms. Scraps was such an adorable little dog.

Elder Gudna had been very surprised when Victor had just magically appeared with Scraps at his tower. It had been quite a shock for him because he hadn't seen anyone in so long and he was shocked because Victor was alive in the Land of the Dead. It had confused him at first but once Victor had told his story it had all made sense. Well maybe not _all _of it. He was still confused how Victor and Scraps had ended up at his place instead of Gutknecht's.

Elder Gudna was concerned about Victor's health. He knew it wasn't good to have Victor stay awake this long. He had to sleep soon. Elder Gudna had no doubt that Victor would sleep soon. Not that Victor would choose to, but he'd get so exhausted that he would just collapse. And Elder Gudna had a feeling that that was going to happen soon.

Victor was half asleep and half awake. He tried to force his eyes open wide so they wouldn't close but they seemed to always shut without his control.

Victor shook his head a couple of times to try to get him just a little bit more awake but it didn't work. Actually it seemed to make him even more tired. If that was even possible.

Victor's legs felt stiff and it was very uncomfortable. It even hurt a little. Victor really, _really_ wanted to lie down and sleep for hours but he wanted to get back to Emily as fast as he could even more.

_Each step counts_. He told himself. His mind had wandered over to the fact that if he was well rested he would probably be going much, much faster then he was now.

But he had quickly shaken that thought from his head. If he lied down and slept, who know how long he would sleep. It would be a whole day or even more. And victor was sure that walking at this pace would get him to Emily a lot faster then sleeping for a whole day or more.

But then his body couldn't take it anymore. His legs failed to stand up any longer. He fell to the ground and instantly was asleep.

**poor Victor...he just couldnt take it any longer :( **


	19. Chapter 18

Seven hours later after Victor had fallen asleep, he was awakened by Scraps who was tugging on his white shirt (which really wasn't white anymore) and whining in a hurriedly voice.

Victor slowly and lazily sat up. He felt much, much better then he had before. He rubbed his eyes to make them clearer and looked down at Scraps who seemed to be looking at something else.

Victor followed his gaze to notice that they weren't alone. They were surrounded by five dead men. They were big, tall, and muscular. They all had there arms crossed and were glaring down at him. Who were these people? Where had they come from?

Victors heart beat faster. He was scared. What were they going to do to him? these people did not seem friendly and didn't seem to like him here. Victor looked around and noticed that Elder Gudna was no where to be seen. Had they done something to Elder Gudna?

Victor quickly reminded himself that since Elder Gudna was already dead, they couldn't harm him, but he, Victor, was living, and he had no doubt that they couldn't hurt him. Victor was getting the feeling that that was exactly what they intended to do.

Victor noticed just then that this whole time he had been shaking in fear, this wasn't knew to him. Victor had always been the easily scared type.

It reminded him of the time when Emily had first brought him to the Land of the Dead. He had been terrified of all the dead people (except Emily of course) but he had soon gotten over that fear and it all seemed normal. Like he had lived with corpses all his life. The people in the Land of the Dead were _way _more happy, nice, creative, and loving then the people in the Land of the Living.

One of the men uncrossed his arms, put them on his hips, and said.

"Well, well. Now who do we have here? Apparently someone living!"

Victor shuddered at the corpse's tone of voice. He knew this wasn't going to be good.

A thought suddenly popped into his head. What if Lord Barkis had sent him? what if these corpses worked for him?

"Ya," said another one of the corpses uncrossing his arms as well.

The corpse bent down, gripped Victor's shirt collar in one hand, and easily lifted him off the ground.

_Gosh. _Victor thought. _These men are really tall. _Victor was super tall already but these people where at least two feet taller then him.

"What are _you_ doing here in the Land of the Dead?" the corpse asked him, glaring into his eyes as Victor's feet dangled two feet above the ground.

Victor was too frightened to answer. He had no idea where these people came from and didn't really want to know in case there was more of them.

"Wha-wha-wha-what have you done with El-Elder Gudna?" Victor finally stuttered.

The corpses eyebrows narrowed in confusion as he said. "_What?_"

So apparently they don't have anything to do with Elder Gudna's disappearance…or were they just playing stupid?

"Elder Gu-Gudna," Victor said not giving up till he found out where his loving old skeleton friend was. "He's am ol-old sk-skelaton."

"Listen Mr. Living," said another corpse stepping into Victor's view. "We don't know who you're talking about, but we do know your living and that you're trespassing on _our _land."

_There_ land? Victor thought this place had been deserted for miles and miles. They had seemed to have no idea where Elder Gudna was though. So…where _was _Elder Gudna?

Victor didn't know what to say so he remained silent. Even if he did say something, they were probably going to hurt him anyway.

"Who are you and what are you doing in the Land of the Dead on our land?" the corpse who was holding him asked him angrily.

The grip was making it hard for Victor to breath. Soon he wouldn't be able to get any breath at all.

It took Victor a while to find his voice but when he did he finally choked out, "I-I'm Victor, and I di-didn't know this was your Land."

"Whose this?" another corpse said to the left of him.

Victor turned his head to see him bend down to pick up Scraps. Scraps yelped as the corpse picked him up by the collar like he was a cat instead of a dog.

Victor knew that wasn't a good idea. Scraps may be a tiny, adorable dog, but if he needed to, he sure can turn into a mean, scary pup.

Scraps disconnected all his bones and they fell to the ground in pieces, leaving the corpse only holding his red collar. Scraps bones then came together and reconnected out of the corpses clutches.

Scraps glared at the corpse holding Victor and charged at him to save his master. He got a hold of the corpses pant leg and tugged furiously hard. The corpse lost his balance and fell to the ground also dropping Victor.

Victor gasped for breath as the corpse growled at Scraps who was still tugging on his pant leg "Let go you dumb dog!"

Victor scrambled to his feet unnoticed by the dead men who were moving toward Scraps. Victor caught Scraps eyes and Scraps gave him a look that said "Run! I am dead! They can't hurt me!"

So that's exactly what Victor did.

Victor heard one of the corpse men behind him shout "Hey! Livin's getting away!"

Victor knew that they were going to run after him. Victor wasn't a fast runner. He fell down a lot when he did. Blame his clumsiness for that. So he never had run much. Though this may be a life or death situation.

Victor's clumsiness still remained though even though he was running across flat, knee-length grass. He tripped over his own two feet and fell to the ground.

In a few seconds he was picked up by that big fist and pulled up to were he and the corpse were eye to eye.

"Tryin to get away aren't ya? You…just made a big mistake." He said in a voice that sent chills down Victor's spine.

Victor closed his eyes and turned his head away. He didn't think they would kill him, just hurt him really, really bad. He heard Scraps whine and Victor knew the little dog was turning his head away too, not wanting to see the big, scary corpse hurt his master.

But before the pain came he heard a familiar voice yell "Put him down!"

Victor opened his eyes and turned to see Elder Gudna seconds before the giant corpse dropped him and Victor fell to the ground.

Victor sighed in relief. He was _so _glad to see Elder Gudna. A few seconds later ago, Victor thought he was going to be crushed by those corpses. Wait…where _had _Elder Gudna gone then? This whole thing added a lot more questions to Victor's list. Victor had more hope though that these questions would be more easily answered them his other ones.

Elder Gudna walked over to him and slowly helped him up. Without a word by him or the dead men, he led Victor away not letting go of him till they were safely away from the corpses.

"Ok," Elder Gudna said looking over his bony shoulder to make sure that they were a safe distance away form the dead men or to make sure that they weren't following them. "I'm so sorry Victor…I didn't think that they would go far enough to find you…"

"It's fine. They didn't harm me," Victor said slightly spreading out his arms to show that he had not a scratch on him. "But who where they? And where did you go?" Victor asked, very desperate for an answer.

"After you fell asleep, I decided to walk around with Scraps and I found a little colony of corpses who, like me, decided to travel but made the decision that they should stay in one place a little while after they had started traveling. Some people find the group and decide to stay while others only stay a while and continue traveling. I had totally forgotten about them. I had stayed with them for a while when I was traveling. So I was talking to them while you slept." Elder Gudna explained. "Those people," Elder Gudna said pointing in the direction of the dead men. "Are kind of the rebellious people of the group. Not good people."

That explained things. Like Victor had predicted, his questions had been easily answered. If only his other questions could be that easily answered…So, there was more people here? Victor couldn't help but be curious. Three weeks ago if you would have asked him to meet a small group of corpses, Victor would have said "No way!" but now he was curious. He had Emily to thank for that. She had made him open up more and not to be so shy.

"Could I meet them?" Victor asked Elder Gudna.

"Oh! I almost forgot! One of them knows you."

Victors jaw dropped. One of them knew him? Was it a relative who had died? Or was it someone he had met here in the Land of the Dead? A thousand thoughts ran through his head at once. Victor failed to notice Scraps skip happily over to them with a skeleton arm in his mouth and a mischievous expression planted on his face. Apparently Scraps had decided to steal one of the dead men's arms as revenge, which the corpse was looking for at this very moment.

"One of them knows me?" Victor asked in astonishment.

"Well it's not exactly a person…but they still know you…" Elder Gudna said.

"What?" Victor asked totally confused now.

"Here, I'll show you."

Elder Gudna turned around and started leading the way. Victor followed. It didn't take long, maybe thirty seconds, before they were amongst about forty corpses lounging around happily talking to each other. Victor didn't see anyone or any_thing _he recognized.

"So…where are they?" Victor asked turning to Elder Gudna.

"Right here," Elder Gudna replied walking over to a large rock where to corpses were sitting and talking to each other. Elder Gudna bent down and picked up something off of the rock.

He walked back over to him and what was wrapped around Elder Gudna's skinny, bony finger made Victors eyes widen in shock.

Then it spoke.

"Oh noes! I knew this day would come! I knew it! I'm losing my mind!" it cried. "And I'm _so _young! I'm only six-thousand years old!"

Wrapped around Elder Gudna's finger was the small green maggot that had lived in Emily's head. Victor had never really talked to him but he knew that the maggot knew Emily quite well. Maybe even really well.

"So you know him?" Elder Gudna asked Victor.

"Ye-Yes. He knew Emily…"

"Ok, I wasn't sure because he's…well…a bit _weird_…"

"Weird? Who you callin weird oldie?" the maggot challenged.

He was just like Victor remembered him. Victor couldn't help but smile. It was like he was connected to Emily somehow.

"So…I'm not losing my mind?" the maggot questioned.

Victor smiled and replied. "No. It's a long story…"

"Does it have to do with aliens?" he asked eagerly.

"Wait…What? No, Scraps brought me here and-"

"Scraps is an alien?" the maggot interrupted.

Victor laughed. This little maggot sure had an interesting personality. He was so melodramatic. It felt good to laugh. Victor felt like he hadn't laughed in a long time. Well Victor had never really laughed much. He had always been kind of depressed his whole life. Always felt like a big part of his life was missing, until he met Emily. So Victor hadn't really laughed much. He hadn't had anyone to make him laugh.

"How did you get here?" Victor asked him. How _had_ he gotten here? Elder Gutknecht had taken all the corpses, minus Scraps, back to the place where they had lived in the Land of the Dead.

"Well, when the big men with the muskets came in, I got scared and hid in some corpses ear." The maggot started.

Victor cringed at the thought of that horrible moment.

"Then I got lazy and stayed in the dude's ear for a while. When I finally came out, I was here."

"Who was it?" Victor asked.

"I don't know! I was in his _ear_!And I've been in _a lot _of people ears…they all look that same…"

All the corpses looked the same? That's what he thought? Victor thought the exact opposite. Victor thought all the corpses looked different and were very unique. Even the skeletons didn't look like each other. The bones and skulls were each different. Each corpse looked _different_. A lot of them looked a lot different then each other. They were all very interesting.

A lot of people in the Land of the Living looked different but they all only cared about themselves. They never talked to each other or said hello. They were all practically the same. In the Land of the Dead, people were nice and each had different talents. You could always rely on them. And a lot of the people in the Land of the Dead loved music. Just like Victor did. That was one of the reasons why he loved being in the Land of the Dead. The Land of the Dead had more to offer. It brought out Victors other side. The side that was happy, not shy but joyful. He was able to express himself.

Emily had expressed herself a lot. She had in lots of ways. When she danced…oh how Victor just loved her dancing…she was so beautiful and graceful. He could watch her dance for eternity. It was a sight that would take away his breath every time no matter how many times he saw it. It was that wonderful.

He missed her so much. After today they would only have another week. Hopefully. Victor didn't know when the next time he would pass from exhaustion would be. Victor really didn't want to go through the torture of trying to stay awake for too long again. But he would do it, for Emily. Victor wasn't looking forward to it though. And they were still so far away from her…

No. he shouldn't see things that way. Instead of thinking that they were a week away, he should think that they were a week closer. He had to be optimistic, not pessimistic. Though who could blame him for being pessimistic? Everyone in the Land of the Living was.

Victors mind, thinking of the Land of the Living, wandered over to what everyone upstairs was thinking about his disappearance. Victor thought about that a lot. He often wondered if they even really cared. Had everyone totally forgotten about it? Thought someone falling in love with a corpse tends to be a bit hard to forget…people had probably stopped talking about it but were still thinking about it.

Another question that made Victor ponder was, what did his father think about all this? Victor had never left that note. He had been gone for a week. Was his father worried? Or did he know he had made it back to the Land of the Dead? Victor was getting to be more unpredictable. Before Emily had taken him to the Land of the Dead, Victor had been very predictable. The only thing people couldn't predict was when the next time he would trip and fall. Who knows what his dad was thinking about his disappearance. What if the town crier saw Scraps take him back to the Land of the Dead?

Victor didn't doubt it. The town crier was always snooping around. He had been the one to see him and Emily on the bridge.

There was also Pastor Galswells…Victor knew what he must be thinking. He knew that Victor had made it back to the Land of the Dead. Though he hadn't seen him, he still knew. Well not exactly knew…but believed it. Surprisingly, Victor didn't care all that much that he knew. Victor was back in the Land of the Dead. What could Pastor Galswells do to him if he was in the Land of the dead? And who would take Pastor Galswells to the Land of the Dead? Even if he did somehow magically make it to the Land of the Dead, he wouldn't be able to take him back to the Land of the Living, for he would be in the Land of the Dead and have to abide by they're rules.

So there was no possible way Victor would be separated from Emily this time. They would be together, literally forever. They would live a very happy life together.

Victor smiled at the thought of that. Victor liked thinking happy thoughts about his beautiful Corpse Bride Emily. He didn't like thinking about being separated from her. He liked thoughts of them being together and thoughts of their future together.

"He's kinda quiet, isn't he?" the maggot said tearing Victor out of his thoughts and making him jump at the sudden silence being broken.

Elder Gudna laughed in his deep ancient voice. "Ya, he is," he replied.

"I'm not _that_ quite…" Victor mumbled.

"Ok. Whatever you say." The maggot said sarcastically.

Victor looked down at the little green creature. Then a thought popped into his head.

"Would you travel with us?" Victor asked him.

"Where are you going?"

"Back to Emily of course," Victor told him.

"Oh yay! Yes I will," he said smiling.

Victor smiled back. It would be fun having someone who knew Emily to talk to. Well there was Scraps, but he couldn't talk. And Elder Gudna didn't know Emily. He knew about what Victor had told him about her, ut he didn't know her personally.

"So how long will t be till we get back Emily?" the maggot asked him.

"A week. Hopefully…" Victor sighed.

"Victor had a tiny bit of doubt that it would take a little while longer than that. It was because he fell asleep…wait…how long was he asleep? Twelve hours? More?

"How long was I asleep?" Victor asked Elder Gudna.

"About seven hours."

Victor sighed in relief. That wasn't as long as he thought he had slept.

"When do we go?" the maggot questioned.

Victor looked at Elder Gudna for the answer.

"Right now I guess." He told them.

"Someone's gonna have to carry me. I'm too small and I won't go fast enough."

"I'll do it," Elder Gudna said. "You can stay on my shoulder." Elder Gudna raised the hand the maggot was on to his shoulder and the maggot crawled onto it.

Victor and Scraps waited while Elder Gudna said goodbye to all the other corpses and they wished them good luck on there trip. When Elder Gudna returned, all four of them began traveling to their destination.

The one thing that Victor liked about traveling was he had a lot of time to think. And thinking made the time go by faster. But the maggot made that absolutely impossible! He was such a chatterbox. He talked about the most weird and random things. It was a but irritating. Elder Gudna and Scraps seemed to think the same thing.

"So there was this one time," the maggot said telling another story which seemed to be his third hundredth. "I was in this one dudes ear; I like going in peoples ears because its easy transformation. And it took me two days to realize that the dudes' ear had fallen off and I wasn't going anywhere. Oh! And there was this one time…"

Victor tuned the maggots voice out into the background so he could think. Was he really going to have to go through a whole week of these constant pointless stories? Victor was annoyed already…and Victor hardly ever got annoyed. Well he did used to get annoyed with himself when he'd lose some of his paints or something. He still got annoyed with himself when he did something clumsy. But not as much as he used to because he was used to it, since he was really, _really _clumsy.

Though when he used to do something clumsy in public…that was the worst! Like when he was due to get married to Victoria and he totally messed up his wedding vows… Victor shook that thought out of his head. It was close, way too close to the time he met Emily and that would bring on his sad thoughts about how much he missed Emily. He didn't want to start bawling.

Victor then realized he hadn't really cried in this week they had been traveling. Maybe it was because now he had hope. Hope that he would see his beautifully bride Emily. Before when he had been in the Land of the Living he had had no hope. No hope at all. But now that he was yet again in the Land of the Dead traveling back to Emily, he had much hope. He knew that he would see her again. So there was no reason to cry, except for the fact that he wasn't with her _right now_…

Victor shook the thought from his head. He mustn't think thoughts like that.

_Wait._ Victor thought. _What was I thinking about before this?_

Oh. His clumsiness. His clumsiness embarrassing himself in public. Victros mind wandered over to a time when he had totally humiliated himself in public.

He had been maybe sixteen at the time and his father had asked him to come down to the family shop. The shop that provided them all their money. They had been rich and had a pretty big mansion, but it hadn't been enough for his mother. His mother only wanted the best.

When he and his father had arrived at the shop, his father had taken him into his office to explain to Victor why he had brought him to the shop. Victor didn't remember what the reason was. Something about how Victor would run the shop when William go to old to do so. Victor hadn't really liked the family business much.

When it would have been Victors time to run the shop that would have required being in public and talking to people. Victor had wanted to be an writer. Something he could do at home and _alone_. But right now all that seemed silly. Victor wasn't shy anymore. He was actually the exact opposite. When he got back to Emily, he wanted to meet and talk to a lot of the corpses. He wanted to get to know them.

So after that talk his dad had had with him about how to run the shop goodly, he took him outside to meet the workers (which Victor hadn't been happy about at all).

That's where everything went wrong. Victor hadn't noticed the stray cat the lingered around the shop a lot hoping to get some food but never succeeded because people in the Land of the Living were _never _nice to _anyone_ and he had tripped over the poor skinny cat.

The cat had screeched and scurried away while Victor crashed into a worker who crashed into another worker and it kept going. People ell and things were scattered all over the place because people had dropped them when the person behind them had crashed into them.

Victor didn't remember what happened after that. That was about three years ago. And Victor didn't tend to remember details to things like that. Though he didn't think anyone would like to remember things like that.

He would sure have a lot of storied to tell Emily about his clumsiness. Emily seemed to like his weirdness. Like the time Emily had first brought him to the Land of the Dead and he had been running away from her. He had wasted a bunch of time climbing up the tall stone wall when there had been stairs a few feet away. Emily had giggled and called him "silly."

Victor smiled at the thought.

It wasn't hard to remember things like that. They were quite easy. It could be because it hadn't been that long ago, or because he had cherished every second he had been with Emily.

It was probably both Victor decided.

Victor tuned out of his thoughts to listen to another one of the maggots stories ans they made their way back to Emily.


	20. Chapter 19

**New chapter up! YAY! almost to the climax of the story :D :D ill try to get the next one up as fast as i can.**

William Van Dort woke up in the living room on the couch that he had fallen asleep on the previous night. He looked at the clock to see that it was already nine thirty five a.m.. his wife, Nell Van Dort had already left to a day of shopping an hour ago.

William was glad. It would be nice to have a day just to relax. He wouldn't have to deal with his wife constantly complaining about all the talk of Victoria and her threats of what she would do to Victor if she ever saw him again.

William was still suspicious about where Victor had gone. He could possibly be traveling to a nearby village. There wasn't any village that was _close _to theirs. The plan had been for Victor to hide in the woods. He could be there. But where was he getting his food? William couldn't help but worry about Victor. And the situation with Pastor Galswells wasn't getting any better. He was coming over every day now and asking the same question, which was,

Where is Victor?

William wished he knew the answer but he didn't. Victor had been gone eight days now. Over a week. William had the same feeling he had when Victor had disappeared to the Land of the Dead. Could Victor possibly have gotten back to the Land of the Dead?

No, William decided he couldn't be. It was impossible.

Things where still weird in the town after the whole 'Victor in love with a corpse' thing. Sure the people in the Land of the Living would be freaked out by that. He himself was. He still didn't see how Victor could be so comfortable with _dead _people. And actually _prefer _to be with them then people who are living. It just wasn't _normal_. And for it to be his shy, clumsy son Victor? It was hard to believe.

Victor had been the guy that was never really known. No one never really knew him or anything about him. But that had all changed when the corpse incident had happened. People where still talking about it. Not really out loud but yesterday, at work, he remembered hearing two workers talking about it.

"Where do you think Victor snuck off to?" one of them had whispered.

"Who knows? He could be back where all those corpses are." The other one had replied.

"That's what I think. Pastor Galswells will do who knows what when he comes to that hypothesis."

"What do you think William thinks about all this? Think he knows where Victor is?"

"No. I heard Pastor Galswells has been coming over to his house everyday and asking William where he is, but he always says he doesn't know."

"Think he's lying?"

"Don't know what to think any more."

And that had ended the conversation.

William hadn't known what to think about it. He had just gone on through the day like the conversation had never happened. William hadn't even cared much. People could think what they wanted to. This was something very big that would probably be told from generation to generation. Everyone had their own opinion, even if what they thought wasn't true at all.

Maybe it was best if they didn't know the truth. An unknown mystery that would probably never be solved.

Would Victor ever return? Would William ever see his son again? William had this weird feeling inside of him. Like something wasn't right. He had this feeling that Victor was in danger. But Victor had Scraps. Scraps would never let anything happen to Victor, like when Scraps was alive, Victor wouldn't let anything happen to him. They were best friends.

Williams mind wandered over to the day when Scraps had died.

It was sad to think about. Victor had just turned thirteen. He and Scraps had been best friends for about four years and they had a very strong relationship. William remembered Victor waking up early so he could have breakfast outside with Scraps without Nell knowing. She thought it was improper to eat outside and Scraps was only allowed outside and in Victors room.

The door to Victor's room had been left open one night and Scraps had wandered outside somewhere. William remembered Victor running into his room and waking him up, in tears. Which Nell hadn't been happy about at all not obviously seeing the connection Victor had with Scraps.

William hadn't hated seeing Victor so sad, so he and Victor had searched the whole town in the middle of the night looking for Scraps but never found him.

A few days later, William, making a last attempt to find him, found the poor pup dead, hidden under someone's front porch.

William had guessed that the pup had been too parched.

Telling Victor hadn't been easy. William remembered the little funeral he and Victor had had near the church. Victor would have liked to bury Scraps behind their house but Nell had totally refused to have a dead animal buried on their property.

Victor had barely come out of his room for two whole months after Scraps had died.

But now the two were reunited. Their relationship just as strong as before.

William looked around the room he was in. light was pouring in from the window showing that today the sky wasn't going to be covered in one giant grey cloud like it was going to rain soon, though it hardly ever did.

It still felt so weird not having Victor in the house. It was so quiet. Not that it hadn't been quiet before but this was like living in a house that had been abandoned for years or something. Like time had frozen. The town was already quiet itself.

William wondered if Pastor Galswells was even going to bother coming over again today. He had to know by now that William honestly didn't know and even if he did, he wouldn't tell him. Pastor Galswells should really just drop the subject and get on with his life. Why did he care so much about where Victor was?

And where exactly was Victor? Why did William have this feeling that he wasn't in the forest or traveling to a nearby village?

The mystery was driving him crazy! He just had to know!

William didn't really think much about the decision he made. He just got up, grabbed his coat, and left the house.

Not even leaving a note for Nell to tell her where he was going when she got back from her shopping trip. Not that she was going to be coming home anytime soon. So William would have plenty of time to do what he needed and get home before his wife did.

He was going to find out where Victor was, and he was going to find out _now_.

* * *

><p>Pastor Galswells Pov.<p>

Pastor Galswells sighed in frustration and furiously closed the book he had been reading. There was _nothing _Pastor Galswells could find about what to do in this kind of situation. The dead had been _here_, in the Land of the Living! And not only that, but someone living had been taken to the Land of the Dead and had fallen in love with a corpse!

That Victor Van Dort should have been terrified, just like everyone else had been and still was. He out of all people should be scared out of his wits!

Had someone from the Land of the Dead brainwashed him or something? Put a spell on him? Pastor Galswells guessed that they probably could do that…But he didn't really think that had happened. Victor Van Dort _had _fallen in love with a corpse all on his own. No spell or brainwashing.

But he shouldn't be! He shouldn't be in love with a corpse! It was unnatural! Especially for him!

Pastor Galswells had ordered all the dead people back to where they belonged and everything had gone back to normal. But then Victor Van Dort went missing.

Pastor Galswells had no doubt that Victor was in the Land of the Dead, but he had no proof. He had gone over to William Van Dort's, Victor's fathers. House countless times and had asked where Victor was. William had told him he didn't know. Was that a lie? Pastor Galswells just got annoyed and frustrated whenever he went over there because he never got the answer e wanted.

He had asked the Van Dort boys mother Nell, but she had been worse than William! She was a very selfish person. All she talked about was herself and clothes.

He was suspicious about William Van Dort. He didn't seem really bothered about Victor falling in love with a corpse. He didn't seem frightened like everyone else was.

Was William OK with this? OK with his own son falling in love with a _corpse?_

When he had gone down to the Van Dort mansion the first time to ask where Victor was, William had even kind of defended the situation.

That just added more confusion and questions to this whole thing. It was such a big situation, and he couldn't even fix it! Well he didn't know how to fix it…yet.

The first thing he would need is proof. Proof that Victor Van Dort was in the Land of the Dead right now.

Who would know that though? Who would have proof?

Pastor Galswells searched his brain for a possible answer. Then he got one.

The town crier.

He would be the only one that would know. Victor Van Dort had gone missing in the middle of the night. The town crier was always sneaking around in the middle of the night.

Pastor Galswells didn't really live in the town. He lived right outside it. So he didn't hear much of the news.

He had to talk to the town crier. If going all the way over to where the town crier was would give him the answer to where Victor Van Dort was, he would.

Pastor Galswells didn't like leaving the church; where he lived; it was just how he was. He had been in the town quiet a lot after he had commanded all the people from the Land of the Dead to go back to where they belong and never return. But that was because he wanted to make sure nothing else had happened, though it had.

Pastor Galswells got up from the desk he was sitting at. He walked out of the room and threw the aisle where people wed. It kind of creeped him out to here because of what had happened in this exact place. Thought a lot of people had been avoiding the church now. Pastor Galswells didn't blame them though. He probably would too if he where one of them.

Pastor Galswells exited the church and started making his way towards the town. When he made it to the end of the old stone bridge, he noticed someone else coming out of the town.

As he got closer to the figure, he could see that it was William Van Dort. Why was he leaving the town? What was he doing?

He approached him and blurted out. "Where are you going?"

William looked up startled and said. "I'm in a bit of a hurry."

Then he quickly walked away without another word. Pastor Galswells watched him walk over the bridge. He was hiding something. But he would deal with that later. He needed to get into the town quickly, talk to the town crier, and quickly leave before anyone noticed him.

Pastor Galswells made his way into the town and was relieved to see the town crier immediately.

Pastor Galswells hurried over to him. The town crier didn't seem too surprised to see him since he had been in the town a lot lately, but he did seem surprised that he was coming over to _him._

"I need to speak with you," Pastor Galswells said in a low voice.

"About what?" the questioned bewildered.

"Have you seem any signs that might be the answer to where Victor Van Dort is?"

The town crier thought for a moment before he said. "Well…There is one thing…"

"What? What is it?" he demanded.

"A little while after Master Van Dort disappeared; I heard this dog barking and this voice quietly saying something. I guess telling the dog to be quiet."

"When and where?"

"At night, and by the town entrance," he said simply.

"Who do you think it was?"

"I don't know."

"Thank you for you for your help. Oh, and tell _no one _about this talk we've had, got it?"

The town crier gulped and nodded his head. Pastor Galswells turned around, started walking out of the town and toward the church.

Who would be walking around at night? Most people would be inside. Especially after what had happened. And why would they be trying to quiet the dog? Whoever it was, he had a feeling they had been headed out of the town and they hadn't wanted anyone to find out. They hadn't wanted anyone knowing they were there or where they were going. People in this town weren't like that.

So who would be out in the middle of the night like that?

Pastor Galswells had a very strong feeling that it was Victor Van Dort.

* * *

><p>William didn't understand why he was doing this. Maybe he was just paranoid. Or maybe something was really wrong. William didn't usually get feelings like this. Like something bad had happened. He had gotten this feeling only once before, and that was when Victor had been taken to the Land of the Dead by Emily.<p>

If he only got bad feelings when things like that happened, how bad was the situation now? William had a worse feeling then he had when Victor had been taken to the Land of the Dead. If William had a worse feeling…Well that couldn't be good could it?

William glanced up to see that he was close to the town's entrance. He didn't care much about what people thought he was doing. If they asked, he wouldn't tell them. It was none of their business.

William didn't know if the town crier was going to announce this. Announce that he was leaving town and into the forest. Even if he wasn't going to be there for more than an hour. He hoped the town crier wouldn't report it. He knew what Nell might do if she found out. William shuddered at the thought.

William exited the town with his head still down, and started making his way towards the forest.

He was almost to the bridge when he heard someone suddenly blurt out. "Where are you going?"

William looked up startled. It was Pastor Galswells. Was he coming to the town to ask him where Victor was again? Like William had decided, he wasn't going to tell anyone where he was going. He certainly wasn't going to tell Pastor Galswells.

"I'm in a bit of a hurry," William mumbled and quickly walked passed him. He could feel Pastor Galswells eyes watching him as he walked over the bridge. William had a feeling that Pastor Galswells was going to interrogate him later.

William stopped in front of the forest. People didn't like to go in there. They were scared to. William could understand that. He was a bit frightened of the tall trees and the dark, silent atmosphere.

William had come here for a reason. He needed to see if Victor was here or if he was at some nearby village. William feared that he'd find his son in the forest dead from starvation or something. He needed to see if Victor was still _alive._

William took a deep breath and entered the forest. The place gave him the chills. He couldn't see how Victor could stay here for a minute let alone live here. Even if the plan had been to live here temporarily. But the forest probably reminded Victor of Emily. That's why Victor felt so comfortable here.

William looked around. If Victor was here he would want to stay somewhere a bit close to town so he could be able to find his way out if he needed to. Because knowing him, he could easily get lost in this gigantic forest. He knew that, and _Victor_ knew that.

Victor would probably want to stay at Emily's grave because he would want to have maybe some sort of connection or something. William couldn't explain it, but it was probably where Victor was.

But where _was_ Emily's grave?

William remembered Victor saying something about it being by an old oak tree. And when Victor had been practicing his vows, he had probably had been walking straight.

So William would just walk straight until he came up to an old oak tree and hope he would find Victor.

William felt that that was easier said than done.

But he at least had to _try._ Even if he didn't find Victor, he would try because, who knows? Maybe he might get lucky. And maybe this whole time he had just been paranoid.

Victor could possible come back if William found him. Then Pastor Galswells could see that _he _had also been paranoid.

William then remembered that Victor had not wanted to come back to the town. He probably didn't want people to question every move he made. Always being an outcast for falling in love with a corpse when he shouldn't be. He _shouldn't _be an outcast for that.

William then spotted it. The old oak tree. It had to be it. William could see the hole that Emily had climbed out of along with a bunch of tree roots. But…there was no sign of Victor. So maybe he wasn't so lucky…Well if Victor wasn't here then he _had_ to be either traveling to a nearby village, or already at one.

But then why did he still have this feeling that something bad had happened to Victor?

William sighed in annoyance. Why was he being so paranoid? Ok, he had a good reason to be paranoid, but he shouldn't be. Victor was safe. And he had Scraps with him.

William turned around and started heading back towards town. It wasn't hard to find the way out of the forest since all he had to do was walk straight.

He hoped Victor was ok. Physically and emotionally. It would take Victor a _long_ time to get over the pain of losing Emily. And knowing how much he loved Emily, he might never get over the pain.

It made William sad to think about how depressed Victor was.

William was glad to see that when he got home that his wife, Nell, was still shopping. Thought he hadn't doubted that she wouldn't be home. Knowing Nell, she shops for a _long _time.

William was still a bit annoyed with this bad feeling he had. Victor wasn't harmed or in danger.

But what if this feeling wasn't because Victor _was _harmed?

What if it was because he was _going _to get harmed?

**hmmmm...let your mind run wild with what the last statment could lead to...**


	21. Chapter 20

**ok so i was going to right this chapter tomorrow, but i decided to write it today :D wonder why i got this chapter up SOOOO fast? well i got this WONDERFUL review from CorpseBrideFan. practically made me cry tears of joy. so ya THIS IS FOR YOU! you know i care because i had said i was going to write it tomarrow but i stayed up till 1:14 a.m. writing this for you :D ENJOY!**

Victor could almost feel the excitement bubble up inside of him. The day was almost over! Then there would be only four more days till he got back to Emily!

Victor knew that was still a while away but he was glad that he was being a lot more optimistic. Rather then before when he was being so pessimistic. And he didn't even feel tired at all! He must be getting used to not sleeping for a while.

Victor looked down at Scraps who was now happily walking next to him. Elder Gudna had wanted to carry Scraps because the poor pup could barely see over the knee-high grass, but Scraps hadn't wanted to. He was getting tired of staying still. Scraps wanted to happily walk and skip next to Victor.

Scraps was always such a happy puppy. Victor liked that about him. He could always cheer Victor up.

Victor looked over to the maggot who was sleeping on Elder Gudna's shoulder. The maggot loved to sleep as much as he loved to talk. Maybe he even liked sleeping more. It was good to have a break from the maggots constant random stories.

Victors eyes glanced up to Elder Gudna, something was wrong though…he looked like he was concentrating on something. Like the thing he was concentrating on wasn't good.

Something wasn't right. If there was something wrong, wouldn't he tell him? But what could possible be wrong? Victor had a bad feeling about this.

"Is there something wrong?" Victor asked concerned.

Elder Gudna stopped walking. He thought for a moment with his head down before he looked up at him and said. "Someone's following us."

Victor looked around but didn't see anything, yet someone could easily be hiding in the grass or somewhere near the beach. Why would someone be following them. And _who _was following them?

"Who's following us?" he asked in a low voice. No one was in sight but who knows how close they could be? Victor didn't want whoever it was to hear them.

Elder Gudna seemed to think the same thing too because he also lowered his voice.

"I don't know who, but they don't seem nice."

"How long have they been following us?" Victor asked a bit panicked. What if it was those guys who had tried hurting him a couple of days earlier? Another fear came into his mind. What if there was more then one person following them? How many corpse had been in that group that almost hurt him. Five? Six? Seven? Victor couldn't remember.

"I don't know…" Elder Gudna answered. "They could have been following us this wholet ime but only brought to our attention now."

They heard a little snore and looked down at the maggot who was waking up from his long nap. He saw the concerned looks on their faces and asked. "What happened?"

"Someone's following us," Victor replied. " What do we do Elder Gudna?"

Elder Gudna sighed. "I don't know."

"Oh come on! Its easy!" the maggot exclaimed. " All we do is get a big stick and whack him with it!" he finished like it was the simplest thing in the world.

Victor sighed. Couldn't the maggot just be serious for once? What if this was really, really bad?

"Are you sure there's nothing you can do? Nothing _we_ can do?" Victor pleaded. Victor didn't like this. Victor had a feeling that this was a very bad situation. Would this delay them from getting back to Emily? Victor hoped not. He just couldn't stay away from Emily any longer then four days. He just couldn't.

" I don't know how long they have been following us," Elder Gudna told them. "but they haven't threatened us so maybe they arnt as bad as we may think they are."

"I just wish we knew who they were…" Victor sighed.

"We may know in time but we should continue the journey like there not even here. We don't want them to know we know about them."

"I agree," Victor said.

They started walking again though they whispered about the problem at hand.

"Who do you think it could be Victor?" Elder Gudna asked him.

"I think its those corpses who tried hurting me. They seemed pretty serious about wanting to beat me up pretty bad."

Elder Gudna pondered about this new information for a while before he said. "Hmmmm…Could very well be them. I think your right."

Victor groaned.

"What?" Elder Gudna asked.

"Nothing….it's just that there may be four plus people who probably want me dead following us…" Victor said nervously.

"Well we don't know if its really them. It could be someone else." Elder Gudna said trying to make Victor less nervous. It didn't work much.

"It could be anyone," the maggot said now joining in on the conversation. "There's _way _more people in the Land of the Dead then there is in the Land of the Living."

So he can be serious? Victor thought. It was a good point, but why would some random person be following them? It had to be someone they knew or met, and they had to have a good purpose for following them. And if they didn't want them to know they were following them, then this must be bad.

Victor looked down at Scraps who was looking up at him. Scraps looked a bit scared. Victor did understand why _he _was scared. He was dead. No one could hurt him.

Victor then realized why Scraps was scared. Scraps wasn't scared for himself, he was scared for _him,_ since he was living and he could be harmed or hurt.

Scraps was a great friend. It was sweet of him to worry so much about his safety, but he didn't need to. He would be fine. No one was going to hurt him..

At least Victor hoped that that was true.

Victor bent down and petted Scraps' skull to comfort him. Scraps nuzzled his skull closer into Victors hand. When Scraps did that that meant he was happy by the touch.

Victor smiled at his little puppy. Scraps always made Victor less nervous. Always made him happier.

"What do you think they want?" the maggot asked Elder Gudna.

"Who knows? They could want _anything_… it all depend on who it is. If Victors right and its those corpses-"

"If it was those corpses would they have just done what they wanted to do to Victor by now?" the maggot interrupted. "They don't seem like the wait and watch type. And plus there is more of them then us so they could easily have done what they needed with no problem at all."

Every one turned to look at the maggot. Now that made sense _and _it was probably right. Those corpses would have done something by now.

"That's a good point," Elder Gudna said. "A very good point…"

"Wait…" Victor said. "If it isn't them….then who is it? Who else could it possible be?"

No one had an answer to this.

Who could it be? They had assumed they had known who there mystery followers where but now there where totally clueless.

This whole thing just added more questions to Victors list. Victor wished he knew the answers to them.

He would find out his answers soon enough. The person would have to reveal themselves sometime or what would be the point of following them? But sometime could be anytime in the next four days. Victor wouldn't mind if they didn't show themselves at all.

But why did Victor care about who these people were? Did it really matter that they where following them? No, I didn't matter. All that mattered was him getting back to Emily. That's all that mattered and that's all that Victor cared about at the time. He should not be afraid of these people who may or may not be bad news. For the rest of the trip, he wasn't going to think about this person (or people) following them, unless they revealed to them who they were and why they were following them.

Victor knew that they were going to do that sometime but for now, they weren't bothering them ( except for the fact that they were following them..) so they shouldn't worry.

"It doesn't matter who they are or what they want or what they want to do. All that matters is that we get to Emily as soon as possible," Victor said firmly.

"Yes. That seems like the best idea and it is our main priority." Elder Gudna said agreeing probably knowing just to agree with Victor when he got like this. When it came to Emily, you don't question Victor.

After that was said, everyone remained quiet as they walked. The maggot had gone back to sleep on Elder Gudna's shoulder and Scraps was less perky then he was before. Scraps was probably just still nervous.

Victor looked up at the sky. It was beautiful. Well the whole place was beautiful. With the still black water and the knee-high grass. But the sky was the most unique. It was constantly changing. They sky usually only had either a few small clouds or none. The clouds were never white though. They were always usually always gray. They changed from many different types of grays though. Sometimes they were light gray, but sometimes they where dark gray.

The clods could also be black. Pitch black. Like the water. It was very unique. Victor hadn't seen anything like it before,

The clods weren't the only thing that changed colors. The sky did too. The sky always looked like it was nighttime. Sometimes the sky was jet black and covered with millions of stars, or sometimes it was a purple color. A bit like a light violet, filled with dark black clouds.

The sky was either black, any shade of dark purple, dark or light grey, or a dark blue. No matter what color it was, it was always breath taking.

This is something Emily would love…

Victor smiled at the thought of Emily being here with him. He felt gloomy again. He missed her so much…

Victor sighed. Why couldn't he be the excited, optimistic person he was a while ago? Now he was depressed. The whole 'someone's following us' situation must have ruined his mood.

Victor was also now a bit tired. It had been almost two days since he had passed out from lack of sleep. But he wasn't too tired. Just a little bit. Not enough to bug him.

Victor guessed that he would pass out one more time from exhaustion one more time before they got back to Emily. Victor didn't really want to, but it wasn't his choice. He couldn't prevent himself from passing out.

Victor knew it was going to be a lot sooner then it had last time. He had had only seven hours of sleep this whole trip. There was no way he was going to be able to stay awake for about six days like he had last time. It just wouldn't be possible.

To bad there wasn't some stay awake spell. Or maybe there was…Victor mentally kicked himself for not thinking to ask about it when Elder Gudna had given him the spell so he would have to eat for a month, but Victor hadn't thought staying awake for two weeks was going to be that hard…buy was he wrong!

But that was all in the past. He must focus on doing his absolute best to get back to his beautiful bride Emily.

And he would do his absolute best.

Victor thoughts were interrupted when he heard a gasp.

Victor looked up. It didn't sound like Elder Gudna so it must have been the maggot.

Everyone stopped walking and looked at the little green creature who was looking towards the beach.

"What is it?" Victor asked the maggot in a hushed tone.

"I saw someone!" he whispered back.

"Who?" Elder Gudna said.

"I don't know! You expect me to know everything?"

Victor and Elder Gudna shushed him in chorus.

"Where did you see him?" Victor questioned.

"Down somewhere on the beach. It must be the person following us because as soon as I turned my head towards where he was, he instantly hid.

"What should we do?" Victor asked them.

"There still is the whacking him with a big stick idea…" the maggot mumbled.

"Where not doing that," Elder Gudna said. "I think we should go down there and see who it is. I know they probably arnt good people, so Victor I suggest you stay here. There could be more then one person so me, Scraps, and maggot should go."

"Good idea," Victor agreed.

Victor didn't like the idea of being left alone while there was some person following them but it was better then going down to the beach where they were.

"We'll be back soon. I guess you could just keep walking. The farther away you are from them the better. "

"Ok"

Scraps whined and looked sadly up at Victor. Victor bent down and gathered Scraps into his arms in a hug.

"It's ok Scraps," Victor said. "We won't be separated long."

Scraps barked and looked up at him seeming to be ok now.

Victor picked up Scraps off his lap and set him back on the ground. Victor stood up and watched as Scraps, Elder Gudna, and the maggot, started heading down to the beach to see who the person following the was.

Elder Gudna's POV.

Elder Gudna, the maggot, and Scraps started making there way down the hill towards the beach.

"Now," Elder Gudna said in the lowest possible voice he could manage. "We need to be extremely quiet. He mustn't make a sound. We don't want them knowing were coming down to the beach where they are or they will run off."

Scraps and the maggot nodded their heads in agreement and they started there way down towards the beach again.

When they arrived at the beach, no one was there, but there was a trail of footprints barely noticeable on the red-black sand.

They followed the trail and it turned out it wasn't a long one. In no time they were at the end of the trail but Elder Gudna didn't see anyone. The footprints just stopped suddenly. Like someone had disappeared.

"That's weird…," Elder Gudna mumbled to himself.

"Where do you think they went?" the maggot asked him.

"I have no idea…it's like they just disappeared."

"Oh no!" the maggot cried.

"What?"

"Scraps is gone!"

Elder Gudna turned around and didn't see Scraps anywhere.

The suddenly, something grabbed him, tied his hands and feet together very quickly, threw him and the maggot in a large bad, and started walking towards his destination.

Elder Gudna, Scraps, and the maggot, had been kidnapped.

**beware, he next chapter is gonna hold EXTREAM AWESOMENESS! like 6000 words. hehehehe I CANT WAIT TO WRITE IT!**


	22. Chapter 21

**hurray! its up! at total of 6,091 words for you all! iit 2:38 in the morning O_O**

Victor watched as Elder Gudna, Scraps, and the maggot, disappeared down the hill towards the beach to see who their mystery follower (or followers) was. Victor didn't know how long it would be until he saw his friends again but he hoped it would be soon. It shouldn't take that long anyways. At least that's what Victor hoped.

Like Elder Gudna had suggested, Victor kept on walking. He was walking a bit faster than he had before because the father away he was from the follower, the better. It was always better to be safe then sorry.

Victor couldn't help but glance over his shoulder every few minutes to see if there was anyone behind him, but there never was. He was just paranoid.

When would Elder Gudna and the others be back? How exactly long was 'not that long'?

Victor always had too many questions. He always seemed to want the answer to everything. But that's how he was. He used to be the guy who loved facts and figures. That part of him was still there. He liked learning things. It's what made him, well _him._

Victor had always been the kind of guy who liked to study. Mostly science and geography. And he loved to study butterflies. He never knew why he was fascinated with the little winged creatures. He would always be fascinated by their beauty and their colors. It had been one of the only colorful things in the Land of the Living.

Maybe he had been fascinated by them because they had somehow had been a connection to Emily. He hadn't known her then but maybe that was why he was always drawn to the creatures, like he had been drawn to her grave. Butterflies had always reminded Victor of Emily after he had met her. They both were very similar. Graceful, colorful, and beautiful. Victor had had many dreams about Emily and there always seemed to be butterflies in those dreams.

Victor looked up at the sky. Right now it was a purple color. Not a dark purple, but defiantly not a light purple. Somewhere in the middle. There wasn't many clouds in the sky but there was a few small, long, skinny, ones. They were a jet black color.

Part of Victor wanted to stay in one place and wait for Elder Gudna and the others to get back so he wouldn't be too far away, but another part of him wanted to keep walking and get as far away from the beach with the person who was following was on as much as he could, because, what if the person who was following them wanted to do something to him? What if they had the same idea of hurting him like the other corpses had?

Victor sighed. This sure was an interesting trip. There was so many things that had happened over the last couple of days. Victor had found Scraps in the Land of the Living…He had made it back to the Land of the Dead…He had met Elder Gudna…He had even run into Lord Barkis on this trip!

That last thought caused Victor to stop walking and totally freeze. His eyes widened a he finally put one and two together. Why hadn't he realized it before? It seemed stupid that he hadn't realized it before now.

Victor finally knew who the person following was.

And that person was _Lord Barkis_.

Victor felt a chill run down his spine at the thought. Lord Barkis didn't just want to hurt him, he wanted him _dead._

But why did Lord Barkis want him dead so badly? What had Victor done to him?

Lord Barkis was probably just angry and wanted him dead. Victor did remember he had yelled at Barkis a few times the day Pastor Galswells had forced all the corpses back to the Land of the Dead and said that they could never return. Victors attitude had been pretty nasty when he had run into Lord Barkis in that cave…but how could he have not? That Lord Barkis Bittern had killed his beloved Emily! He had deserved it! No, he hadn't deserved to be yelled at, he deserved something much worse! Something way worse than that!

Victor felt his fists ball up in anger and his eyes glare at the thought of Lord Barkis. He just hated him so much! He had no right to do that Emily! He had no right to do that to anyone.

Victor sighed angrily; he just needed to calm down. Victor wasn't someone who usually got angry but…Uh! Barkis was just so…so…There wasn't a bad enough word to call him. Lord Barkis jut really made him angry, furious, and the list goes on…

Emily hadn't deserved what Lord Barkis had done to her. She hadn't deserved it at all.

It just wasn't fair! Victor felt like stomping his foot like a small child not getting their way. Victor wasn't used to feeling so mad. It was very new to him. Though he had been feeling it a lot more since he had found out what Lord Barkis had done to Emily.

It different having these feelings…before he had met Emily he had only felt loneliness, sadness and emptiness. He had been happier when Scraps was alive but those feelings had still lingered inside of him.

Now he felt new feelings. He didn't feel empty like he had used to. He felt full now since he met Emily. He felt anger and hate towards that evil Lord Barkis. He felt hope. Hope that he would see his wonderful Emily again.

And he would see Emily. Soon. Very soon…but not soon enough on Victor's opinion. Victor just had to be patient. But it couldn't help but be hard. He was in love with Emily, and every minute without her was like torture.

Oh how much he missed his dear Emily. Her voice, her laugh, the magic he felt when he was with her. How she danced so gracefully. How she made him feel like he was floating when ever he was with her. How _she_ seemed to float whenever she was with him. Victor didn't doubt at all that she actually could float. Actually he was positive she could. She was certainly magical.

Before Victor could stop it, he felt tears pouring out of his eyes. Each tear showed loneliness and sadness of how much he longed to be with Emily. How much it hurt him to be apart from her.

Victor knew he shouldn't be crying. The more he cried the more tired he would get. That was the last thing he needed at the moment. To be tired when Lord Barkis was sneaking around with the task of wanting to murder him. And it would prevent him from getting to Emily in the next four days.

Victor could tell this day had ended and they were now on their tenth day of traveling because all the clouds had cleared. Elder Gudna had told him how to know when a day had passed. He had said when the sky turns totally purple with no clouds in it, that it was a beginning of a new day in the Land of the Dead.

Things were so much different in the Land of the Dead then the Land of the Living. But Victor liked the change. Victor was so much like the people in the Land of the Dead, except he was living.

But maybe he wouldn't be for long. The only way he could marry Emily was to die for her. And he would gladly do it. For her. _For them._

Victor noticed tears had stopped falling from his eyes and he whipped away the remains of the tears off his cheeks.

Was Emily still thinking about him? Did she still love him the same way he loved her? Victor knew that she probably did, but he couldn't help but think those thoughts.

That was one of the things he didn't like about this journey. There was just _too_ much time to think. Victor liked thinking but he hated it when his mind wandered over to things like that. And the thoughts were just pointless.

Victor looked back over his right shoulder again to see if anyone was behind him or if Elder Gudna and the others were coming back but Victor didn't see anything.

Had Lord Barkis done something to them? But what could he do to them…they were already dead.

But if Lord Barkis hadn't done anything to them then they would defiantly have been back by now. They wouldn't even have to have bothered talking to him because they would have recognized him.

Wait…but Elder Gudna didn't know what Lord Barkis looked like. Elder Gudna had only heard about him. Scraps and the maggot knew what he looked like though, so they would be able to tell Elder Gudna. Well the maggot could since Scraps couldn't talk.

So since they weren't back by now, then Lord Barks must have done something to them, but what?

Well he couldn't have just taken them!

Or could he have…What if Lord Barkis had kidnapped them?

Victor's heart practically stopped as that thought crossed his mind. What else could Lord Barkis have done to them? What other reason could it be that they weren't back by now? Lord Barkis must have kidnapped them. There was no other explanation that made sense.

So…If they were kidnapped. Then that left Lord Barkis the perfect opportunity to kill him.

Fear filled Victor as he realized that he was alone. If Lord Barkis tried to kill him…No one would be there to help him. There was no way Victor would be able to get away or be able to live through it if Lord Barkis found him.

But…Then again….He would be with Emily. It would be a lot faster than it would be to _walk _the rest of the way.

But he didn't want to die that way…And he didn't want to let Lord Barkis feel like he succeeded something when he killed him. And Emily would not be happy with it at all…She would hate Lord Barkis _a lot _more then she had before…Victor was sure of that.

How was Victor going to get Lord Barkis off his trail? It was practically impossible since they were only going straight….And they had been going straight this _whole time._

Victor hoped Elder Gudna and the others were ok. Victor knew they probably were, but he couldn't help but be concerned. Victor should turn around and go recue them. He had to. He just couldn't leave them alone. They were his friends. They all had helped him so much. Now he needed to help them.

Where would Lord Barkis take them though? Where would he keep them hidden and locked up? As far as Victor knew, there wasn't any other caves on the beach.

Victor couldn't go off looking for them without an idea of where they were. And Victor had absolutely no idea at all. How could you hide someone in this place? It was so open. It was just a bunch of grass and a beach. That was pretty much it. Thought even though it wasn't much, it was sure a beautiful site.

There was the ocean…since they dead, they didn't need to breathe, so Lord Barkis could have easily have hidden them in the water. But if they were in the water, how would Victor get to them? He was living, and knowing him, he would probably drown before he got even close to them. Or he would be eaten alive by some blood thirsty dead sea creature. Victor could still vividly remember last time when he had almost got killed by that shark…

Victor felt chills go down his spine at the thought and quickly cleared his head of the image. Why was making sound like they _were_ in that black marble sea? There was a thousand of other places Lord Barkis could have hidden them. For all Victor knew, that wasn't even close to where they really were. Even though Lord Barkis was evil, Victor had to admit he was sure pretty dang good at it.

Victor sighed. Why did things have to be so complicated? Why couldn't have Lord Barkis just have permanently disappeared out of his life after the last time he had saw him? Life seems to be just a lot easier with him not around.

Victor peered over his right shoulder once more just to make sure no unwanted people were following him. Victor took a deep breathe to try to calm his nervous self. It helped a little bit, but not much. It was just like him to be this nervous and scared. He was practically shaking. No wait…he _was_ shaking. Figures.

Victor wished he could be more brave. He totally wanted to kill Lord Barkis…yet he couldn't since Lord Barkis was already dead. But he was scared of him. Well not really scared of him, just what he would do to him. Victor had no doubt in mind that that was what Lord Barkis wanted to do. Murder him. And probably pretty brutally…

Victor shuddered at the thought.

Maybe he should just let Lord Barkis kill him. Just put up with it and let him do it. He would be back with Emily and he could tell Elder Gutknecht about Elder Gudna, his brother, and Scraps and the maggot. And Elder Gutknecht would help them. They would probably get recued _a lot _faster since Elder Gutknecht was an Elder then it would be if Victor went on some wild goose chase looking for them and never finding them. That wouldn't be good and it would be a waste of time.

Victor looked up from the dark gray, knee-high grass and…saw something. Something out of the ordinary. Victor could tell from where he was standing that it was a building. But why was there just a building randomly out here in the open? Maybe it wasn't randomly out here. Maybe there were people there! And they could help him stop Lord Barkis and help find Elder Gudna and the others!

Victor estimated how far it was between him and the building. It was a little less than one fourth of a mile. It wouldn't take him that long to get there. Maybe a few minutes.

Victor had a good feeling about this. People in the Land of the Dead were always so kind. Ya know, except for Lord Barkis and those corpses who had tried to practically murder him. So, those people would help him right? If there even were people there. There probably was. Why would there just be a random building in the middle of this place without people there? Maybe it was one of those colony things where people who are traveling stay there and visit or for people who actually live there. Like the one they had been at a few days ago.

Victor had never met anyone in that colony, besides those creepy corpse guys, but Elder Gudna had said they were nice and some of them had been his friends, so why shouldn't the people at this one be nice too? _If_ there were people here. But Victor had a strong feeling that there were. Or was it a strong hope?

A cold, calming breeze blew through Victor's hair as he got closer and closer to the building that may or may not have people that could help him find Elder Gudna, Scraps, and the maggot. The breeze was nice. Victor had always liked calming wind. Even before all this had happened. He hadn't liked that it was cold like he did now but he had liked the feeling of it. Victor remembered how much his mother had hated wind and even small breezes like this one. She had not wanted her hair to get messed up. Of course, his mother only caring about how she looked.

Victor could see that he was only about forty feet away from the building now. It was a pretty old building from the looks of it, but yet again, everything in the Land of the Dead looked that way. It seemed to originally be painted a white color. The paint was chipped in many, many places and it was a very faded white. The wood under it was rotting and there was some holes in the wall.

Victor approached the building. It was quite big. It looked abandoned. Like no had been there for a while. It seemed really quite.

Victor's heart dropped. What if there was no one here? And it was just some random building that was put out here for purposes Victor didn't know? How would he help Elder Gudna and the others than? Victor wouldn't be able to find them on his own. Knowing Lord Barkis he had probably hid them some place good. Somewhere that would be impossible for Victor to find. What would he do then?

And there was not only the problem of having to find Elder Gudna and the others; he had a certain amount of time to find them. And he didn't know how long, or how short that time period would be. It all depended on when Lord Barkis would make his move. When Lord Barkis would decide to reveal himself to Victor. Though Lord Barkis probably knew that Victor knew who it was already. But when Lord Barkis showed up, his time would be up. He wouldn't be able to escape him and Lord Barkis would probably murder him. Make that _would _murder him.

Then he would return to where they greet new arrivals and Victor would be able to Elder Gutknecht what happened. Then everything would be all right, right? At least Victor hoped that that was true…

Victor finally made it to the building that looked like it was going to collapse anytime. Though Victor knew it never was going to. That was how things were in the Land of the Dead. It was pretty interesting, how things worked and were here in this place.

The was a lot of windows in the place. They were all broken or had holes and cracks in them. There seemed to be maybe three or four entrances to the place. Maybe even five, but that was on the side that Victor could see. There could be more on the other side of the building. Victor didn't know.

It was very silent…not like how it would be if people were here. People in the Land of the Dead tend to be very happy and chatty people. There always having a great time with each other when there together. Kind of like one big family.

But who knows, maybe there were people inside. It wouldn't hurt to just look, would it? It might since he may have very little time but he didn't want to just leave this place without being absolutely sure no one was here just in case there happened to be people here that would be able to help him find Elder Gudna and the others.

Victor could see inside the building through the many broken windows and it didn't look like there was anyone in there. But this place was pretty big. Maybe there was people over on the other side and Victor was just unable to hear them in the spot he was in. But Victor knew his hopes were high. But at least he was being hopeful and not the opposite. The only problem with being very hopeful was that sometimes you get really disappointed when you find out that your hopes didn't happen or weren't going to happen or weren't true.

Victor walked into the building and looked around. There wasn't really anything in the building. It was mostly empty. Well the part Victor could see anyways. The rooms were not small but they weren't big. The inside of the building looked like the outside of it. Faded white paint on the walls, chipped paint here and there, and the rotting wood. The floor boards were also rotted pretty badly.

No one was here.

Then a loud crash came from outside and Victor quickly turned around to see what it was. He didn't see anything. He slowly walked forward a few steps and look around cautiously. What was that? Had it just been some rotting wood that had fallen from the building?

Then something, _someone _ran passed the window on the wall Victor as facing. Someone _was_ here! So it had been a good idea to come in here. But who was it? Was it only them or was there more people?

"Hello? Who's there?" Victor called out.

No one replied so he tried again.

"My friends were kidnapped and I need help finding them."

Again no one answer. Had Victor just imagined it? Or where they trying to hide from him? But people in the Land of the Dead weren't like that. They were usually friendly and welcoming. And anyways, why would they try to hide from him?

Victor heard a floor board creak about a foot behind him and quickly turned around to see Lord Barkis with a knife held high over his head about to stab it into Victor.

"What the-!" Victor yelled half finishing his sentence as he jumped out of the way before the knife could come down on him.

Victor then realized that no one was there except him and Lord Barkis. No one was going to help him, Elder Gudna, Scraps or the Maggot. His time was up. He had already run out of time.

Even though Victor knew exactly what Lord Barkis was doing he could help but stutter out of fear to buy himself some time before he would die. Maybe he might be able to get away. Though he doubted it. His chances were very, very slim though.

"Wh-What are you doing?" he stuttered looking up at Lord Barkis from the floor where he had landed when he had jumped out of the way of the knife.

"Getting revenge," Lord Barkis said through gritted teeth glaring at him evilly.

Victor knew he was probably not going to get away from Lord Barkis but he decided he would keep asking him questions so he could live just a little bit longer. And Victor was totally terrified right now.

"Revenge on wh-what?" he asked.

"You! You're the whole reason I'm down here in this dang place. I don't like you and trust me, I know you don't like me, so killing you would be my pleasure and you would probably hate me even more then you do right now," Lord Barkis replied seeming to like where this was going. Liking that he was going to get to kill Victor and being amused that Victor was going to hate him even more for it.

"What did you do with Elder Gudna and the others?" Victor said with anger and hate towards Lord Barkis rising in him.

"Oh, your little friends? Trust me they are fine, but you, on the other hand, won't be."

Victor glared at him and now gritting his teeth, said. "I will never trust or believe anything you say."

Lord Barkis sighed like he knew something Victor didn't and said simply. "Not very surprising."

They were both silent for a while glaring at nothing in particular until Victor broke the silence and said. "Why do you even want revenge? Why do you want to kill me so badly?"

"You deserve it!" he yelled at him.

He, Victor deserved it? _He _deserved to be killed? Victor felt more anger rise up in him. What was wrong with him? Lord Barkis had deserved to be killed. He deserved something much worse. But sadly there wasn't anything worse, was there? Lord Barkis would never get the punishment he truly deserved. And Victor was going to get something he didn't deserve at all. Death.

"And _why _do I deserve it? _I _wasn't the only who killed you. You did that all on your own," Victor growled.

Lord Barkis glared at him and didn't say anything. Maybe it was because he knew it was true. But Lord Barkis wasn't one to think that anything was his fault. Lord Barkis seemed to be too angry to be able to yell anything back at Victor, so he just kept on glaring. It wasn't a bad thing for Victor though, because the longer he was able to avoid when Lord Barkis would kill him, the better. Victor felt more relieved then scared at Lord Barkis' evil look.

And Victor was pretty much used to being glared at. Before he had met Emily, he had been glared at a lot. Mostly by his mother. When ever Victor would stutter or do something clumsy, he would get that glare that said she defiantly wasn't happy or pleased with him. So he had gotten that look about ten times a day. Since he was probably the clumsiest person known to man.

But he had been glared at by a lot of other people in town. Mostly it was because of his clumsiness. Back then Victor had always been afraid of their glares. Since he had used to have been so easily scared. But things weren't like that any more.

Finally Lord Barkis did answer though.

"If it hadn't been for you, I wouldn't have accidentally have drunken that poison. Who knows, you could have plotted it. The poison was originally for you after all. Everything just leads back up to you," Lord Barkis said furiously.

Victor didn't know if he actually believed all that or not. He could have just made it all up so he wouldn't look bad or something. But nothing he said really mattered. Victor didn't care about any of the stuff Lord Barkis said or told him.

"Now if you don't mind," Lord Barkis said. "I would like to kill you now," he finished with an evil smile spreading across his face.

Fear filled Victor once more hearing those words he so much dreaded. He took that as his cue to get up and do something instead of staying on the floor waiting for his death to come.

Victor watched as Lord Barkis Bittern raise the knife in his hand once more and start walking towards him. Victor jumped up quickly in fear and plastered himself against the wall. There was nowhere to run. Nowhere that he could escape to.

Lord Barkis raised the knife and before he could bring it down on Victor, Victor quickly ducked and the knife struck into the rotting wood, where Victors head had been moments ago.

It reminded Victor so much of the night he and Lord Barkis had fought on. The night he and Emily had been separated. Except Victor had had some sort of weapon then instead of none. Even if his weapon had only been a fork, it had become quite handy.

While Lord Barkis struggled to get out the knife that had cut deep into the wood, Victor quickly ducked under Lord Barkis' arm and tried running out of the room, but Lord Barkis, still trying to get the knife out of the wood, grabbed Victors fore arm before Victor could even get a foot away from this evil murderer.

Victor tried to get out of his grip but it was just too strong. Victor was surprised that Lord Barks was so strong because Lord Barkis was only holding him by one hand and was trying to get the knife out with the other. It would have been easier to escape Lord Barkis' grasp if he was fighting for something. But he wasn't. Well he was fighting for his life, but it just wasn't the same as it had been before at the church about two weeks ago. When he had been fighting to get out of those guys grasps and get to his Emily, who had been taken away from him.

Victor squeezed his eyes shut as he felt anger and mixed emotions rise up in him like smoke from a fire as he thought about that night, and finally tugged his arm out of Lord Barkis' grip.

He dashed towards the exit but just as he was about to exit the old beat up building, he felt himself being pulled back by the back off his shirt collar. Apparently Lord Barkis had decided to forget the knife. At least, for a while.

Was this how it was going to end? Being beaten to death by the evil murderer Lord Barkis Bittern? It defiantly wasn't a happy ending, but at least he would get to see Emily again. His wonderful, beautiful Emily. So maybe it wouldn't be so bad. It would be over with soon enough, right? Or would Lord Barkis put him through a horrible, long death? Knowing Lord Barkis it was probably the second.

"I am not, letting you get away a second time!" Lord Barkis growled from behind him.

Still holding onto Victor's shirt collar, Lord Barkis dragged him back over to where the knife was, and furiously pulled the large sharp knife out of the rotting wood.

Victor's heart raced inside of his chest and his breath became heavier and heavier. It seemed to get harder and harder for Victor to breath air in easily. No matter how much Victor wanted to deny it, he couldn't. He was scared to death of what was to happen to him. But then again, who wouldn't be scared if they were in this situation?

Victor thought that Lord Barkis was going to start immediately piercing his skin with the sharp weapon after he had first gotten it out of the rotting wood, but he didn't. Instead, he decided to slam Victor's head into the wall. Hard.

The second the right side of Victors head and the wall came into contact, Victor felt immediate pain. Black splotches filled his vision. He didn't see, or feel himself fall to the floor with a hard thud.

Victor tried his best not to fall unconscious. Lord Barkis was pretty strong. But Victor luckily did not fall unconscious.

Victor was starting to understand how this was going to go. Lord Barkis would probably beat Victor first. Torture him as much as possible. As much as Lord Barkis possible could. Then, when Lord Barkis felt like he had done enough damage, he would bring the sharp knife into the picture. And that's how Victor's life would end. Being beaten and stabbed to death.

Overall, this was going to be a very painful experience.

Victor thought of his father. He would never see him again. Once Lord Barkis killed him, he would be part of the Land of the Dead, and would never return to the Land of the Living, since it was forbidden for dead people to go up to the Land of the Living.

Victor tried pushing himself up with his hand but before he even made it half way off the rotting floor, Lord Barkis grabbed him by the shirt once more and flung him across the other side of the room. Victor hit another wall hard. Though this time, the impact was so strong, Victor went _through _the wall, and into the next room.

The whole wall caved in on him. Wood falling everywhere. Lots of sharp pieces of wood pierced his skin. The wall collapsing had not hurt as much as he expected it to. But Victor was sure he dislocated his right shoulder. The pain was almost unbearable.

Victor couldn't wait till this was over, but he had a feeling it was only just the begging.

Victor would have tried to get up and run but he couldn't move. His dislocated shoulder and all the wood pilled on him made that impossible. Victor took in deep breaths to try to ease the pain coursing through his whole arm now.

Victor heard Lord Barkis laugh come from the other room.

"You're so pathetic," Lord Barkis spat at him. "You don't even try. Hmmm. I'm a bit disappointed. I thought this was going to be more of a challenge. A bit more fun."

Lord Barkis exaggeratedly sighed sadly, like it was a horrible disappointment. "But…I guess not. I will still have my revenge though."

Victor started to tremble when he heard Lord Barkis' footsteps start coming closer and closer to him. With each step Lord Barkis took, the floor boards creaked under the murders feet.

When Lord Barkis got to where Victor was in the heap of wood, he started lifting the boards off him easily and throwing them furiously out of his way so he could get to his victim to torture him some more. A lot more.

When Lord Barkis finally reached him, he grabbed his upper arm and yanked him out of the pile of wood fiercely. Victor screamed out in pain since the arm he had pulled, had been the dislocated one. Victor had never felt this kind of physical pain before. It was horrible! Victor hadn't known there could be such pain. It made Victor want this to be over as fast as possible even more then he had had a few moments ago.

Lord Barkis smiled at his pain and threw him down onto the ground hard with an evil grin on his face. Oh how much Lord Barkis was enjoying this…Victor hated that he couldn't do anything about it. Couldn't get up and fight back. He was too weak, and Lord Barkis was much too strong.

Victor didn't bother to try to get up and run away. He didn't bother to get away from his attacker. It was his time. Time for him to die. It wouldn't be long before he saw his wonderful Corpse Bride Emily again. He would finally be with her. And just knowing that, Victor could get through this horrible death.

Victor closed his eyes and went limp. Waiting for Lord Barkis to finish him off.

"So you are just going to lay there? You're not even going to try to fight back or run away?" Lord Barkis said next to him. "You're more pathetic then I thought."

Victor didn't say anything or move a mussel. He just laid on the rotting wood floor waiting for Lord Barkis to just get on with it already.

And he did. Lord Barkis kicked him in the stomach hurtfully and Victor groaned in pain. He yanked him off the floor and through him into another wall once more. Victor back hit the wall hard and fell to the ground. He landed on his shoulder but luckily it wasn't the one that was dislocated. But now _both _of Victor's arms hurt severely and he was stating to fade into unconsciousness.

Victor didn't know how long he just laid there. It could have been a couple of minutes or only a couple of seconds. Lord Barkis just stood where he was looking at him for a while. Probably deciding what horrible thing he was going to do to him next.

It wasn't long before Victor heard footsteps approaching where he lay. Lord Barkis bent down, and picked him up by his thin neck with his large hand. He lifted him off the ground high so that his feet were dangling a bit.

Victor would have stayed in his limp position but he couldn't help but raise his hands to his neck and try to pry Lord Barkis' hands off so he could breath.

Lord Barkis squeezed Victor neck tightly for a few moments before he threw him into one of the surviving windows. Victor crashed through it and landed on the dirt outside the building. Mini pieces of glass flying everywhere and cutting into his skin.

Victor laid there on his stomach in pain before he heard Lord Barkis approach him. He felt a knife being stabbed into his back and fresh blood pour out of his wound.

Victor thought Lord Barkis was going to do more…but he didn't. Victor didn't think he just stopped though...it just wasn't how Lord Barkis was.

Victor started fading away from life and the last thing he felt before he slipped into unconsciousness was someone picking him up off the ground with their cold arms, and pulling him close to them trying to comfort him. Showing him that he would be safe with them.

That he would _always _be safe with them.

**i want you to guess what the last part is. anyone who guesses correctly will get the next chapter up the day they post their answer! :D**


	23. Chapter 22

**sorry its short, but as i promised, whoever guessed correctly about what had happened at the end of the last chapter would get a chapter posted the day they posted their answer. actually i just looked at the reveiws again and someone else got the answer correctly too... :) **

**first person who got the answer right was anonymous and they didnt put any name at all...**

**here was their reveiw**

**"Omg please, please write more I can't wait to know what happened to victor! I have a feeling that Emily came to victor's rescue, but please write more!"**

**yup that was the answer...It was Emily! :D She wont let her man die. Not on her watch! espessially if his death would be caused by Lord Barkis.**

**the second person who wrote their reveiw and got the answer right wrote it in spanish and i dont know spanish...but thats what google translate is for! :3 ok on with the story.**

Victor seemed to be rising from the darkness he was in. He wasn't unconscious anymore, but he just couldn't wake up. His mind was awake but he physically wasn't.

It frustrated him that he couldn't wake up. He so desperately wanted to open his eyes and wake up but he just couldn't for some reason. It was a weird feeling. Victor didn't like it.

It was like a cage he was trapped in. He wanted out but he couldn't get out. At least he wouldn't get out without a struggle.

It took Victor a while, although he finally managed to get out of the dark thick wall that was blocking him from the world.

Victor eyes fluttered open like a butterfly flapping its wings for the first time after coming out of its cocoon. He didn't feel weak like he thought he would after Lord Barkis' ambush. Maybe he was already dead. But if he was dead, why was he still breathing in air and _needing _oxygen? He must not be dead then…though, why wasn't he feeling any pain?

Victor tore out of his thoughts to see _where _he was. And he practically had heart attack when he did.

Victor had only been in this place maybe two or three times, but he would never forget it.

He was in Elder _Gutknecht's _tower.

Some books had been moved off from the floor and what now was there was the cot Victor was laying on. How had he gotten here? More importantly _who _had brought him here?

Victor felt something shift beside him and he looked down, to see his wonderful Emily clutching his hand in her bony one and resting her head on his cot asleep, with the rest of her body sprawled gracefully over the floor.

Victor felt tears of joy run down his face as he watched his beautiful Emily sleep. He finally was with her. And nothing would ever, _ever_ tear them apart again. Victor had never been so happy in his entire life.

Victor felt just like he had when he had first saw Emily. Happiness, full of life, and love towards her.

With his free hand he started stroking Emily's matted dark blue hair. She looked so sweet and cute when she slept. He was hypnotized by her beauty. All the depression and loneliness he had felt over the last two weeks instantly vanished. All he felt now was joy and happiness.

Victor tore out of his hypnotizing state when he heard a familiar voice say. "You're finally awake now."

Victor sat up and looked up to see Elder Gutknecht looking over at him. It felt like ages since he had seen the old skeleton.

"Elder Gutknecht!" Victor exclaimed happily in a low voice so he wouldn't wake Emily.

"It's good to see you again Victor," Elder Gutknecht replied.

Victor looked down when Emily shifted again. Her eyes opened and she looked up with her long glorious eye lashes batting at him. Oh how she could so easily take his breath away.

"Oh Victor!" Emily cried, instantly awake, and jumped into his arms. She wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her face into his shirt.

Victor pulled her as close to him as he possible could and hugged her tightly.

"I missed you so much," Emily whispered with tears of joy now flowing out of her eyes.

"I missed you too," Victor responded with his voice cracking from his own tears of happiness.

They stayed like that for who knows how long. Crying in each other's arms. They hadn't even noticed Elder Gutknecht leaving the room to give them some privacy.

When tears had stopped falling from both of their eyes, Victor leaned back against the wall with his arms still wrapped around Emily who was lying against his chest. It felt like they could just stay in that position forever. Them together, forever.

There was still so many questions Victor had. Like how he had gotten here. How he was unharmed like the whole Lord Barkis thing had never even happened. What had happened to Elder Gudna, Scraps, and the maggot. But those questions would have to wait. All that mattered at the moment was that he was with his wonderful Emily.

After so long, he had finally gotten back to his Emily.

Victor knew that everything was going to be ok now. Everything was going to work out just fine.

As long as he had Emily, everything was going to be all right.

**ya...sorry its short but its short and sweet :) it just explains where Victor ended up, that he was fine, and he is now with Emily :) i would have writen more but the chapter didnt need anymore. it was meant to be as it is. ill explain everything else in the next chapter. **


	24. Chapter 23

**Hurray! another chapter! as i said, everyting is explained in here...sorry it took a while to upload. i changed schools for a while but then i went back to my original school and ya. its been busy. enjoy!**

Victor was sitting down on Emily's coffin with Emily sitting on his lap at her house in the Land of the Dead. Oh how great it felt to be back. With his wonderful Emily in his arms. It was literally a dream come true. They had been together for about two hours now yet he still felt like he had when he had opened his eyes to see his beautiful bride next to him.

There was something that was still bugging him though. He knew he couldn't put it off any longer. He just had to know.

Victor looked down at Emily who was nuzzling her head into the side of his neck happily like Scraps had done many times to him. Victor had missed the touch of her cold blue skin so much.

"Emily?" Victor said.

Emily looked up and into his eyes.

"Yes?" she said in her angel-like voice.

"What…what exactly happened? I mean…I should be dead, shouldn't I? And how did I get here so quickly?" he asked.

Emily smiled at him and said, "I was wondering when you were going to ask that. Being the curious man you are."

Victor smiled back at her. He leaned down to give her a sweet peck on the lips and waited for her to explain what had happened.

"After Elder Gutknecht had brought all the corpses back down here," Emily started. "I had been in so much pain because I had been separated from you that I locked myself in here and just cried."

Victor hated hearing that she had been so sad. It hurt him inside to know that she had been so depressed.

Victor leaned down and kissed her again, as if he was comforting her then while she was still in so much pain.

Emily smiled under his lips and pulled back.

"Will you let me finish?" she said giggling.

"Yes," he replied smiling.

"OK. So after two painful weeks, Elder Gutknecht visited me and told me he had something to show me. I followed him to his tower and he said he had been searching for a way for us to be together again, but he had found nothing that could undo the law Pastor Galswells had made.

"Though he said he had found a spell that I would like."

"And what was that?" Victor asked curious.

"It was a spell that would let me see you. Not literally, but like a magic mirror or something. When he did the spell I saw Lord Barkis trying to kill you…in the Land of the Dead. Since you were in the Land of the Dead, Elder Gutknecht was able to transport me to where you were."

"But I thought there was only two spells of transport. The spell to bring people from the Land of the Dead to the Land of the Living and the one to bring people from the Land of the Living to the Land of the Dead." Victor questioned confused.

"There's one that can transport you anywhere also. Elder Gudna just didn't know about that one…"

"Elder Gudna…what happened to him and the others?" Victor said worriedly.

"I'm getting to that part," Emily said. "Anyways, once Elder Gutknecht transported himself and me to where you were, Elder Gutknecht was able to quickly transport Lord Barkis somewhere where he won't be able to bother or hurt us anymore. After I had gathered you into my arms, Elder Gutknecht transported us back to his tower and healed you with a healing spell.

"It wasn't long before Elder Gutknecht figured out you had been traveling with his brother, the maggot, and Scraps. He transported himself back while I stayed with you and he found them down at the beach tied up."

"And they're here?"

"Yes," Emily replied.

Victor stayed silent for a while to let this new information sink in. It sure answered a lot of his questions. Things didn't seem to be so confusing anymore. At least not as confusing.

"Now that I've told you what has happened here," Emily said breaking the silence. "Now it's my turn to ask the questions!" she said happily. "How exactly did you get back to the Land of the Dead?"

Victor smiled and said "Scraps."

"Scraps?" Emily questioned surprised.

"When Elder Gutknecht had taken all the people from the Land of the Dead back down here, Scraps had been left behind. I found him in my house and he transported us to Elder Gudna's tower."

"Why did you end up at Elder Gudna's tower and not here?"

"I don't know. Scraps seemed pretty confused about that too."

"Hmmm…Interesting," Emily said as she rested her head on his shoulder.

"Then what happened?" Emily asked with her head still resting on his shoulder.

"Well he hadn't known about any transporting spell. He said the only way I could get back here was to literally walk all the way here. So I asked Elder Gudna to come with me to show me the way and he agreed."

"You decided to _walk _all the way here?" Emily asked incredulously. "You would have been exhausted! How often did you sleep?" she questioned concerned.

"Uh…I slept once for seven hours…if you don't count that time I slept walked for two minutes…"

"Victor!" Emily scolded him.

"What?" Victor asked innocently.

"That's not healthy for you! Why did you barley sleep for almost two _weeks_?"

"Because the more I slept, the longer it would take to get to you."

Emily stared into his eyes and wrapped her arms around his neck.

"Oh Victor…" She breathed. "You're just so sweet."

She tilted her head up and her lips met his. She kissed him passionately. Victor brought his hand up to her cheek and returned her passionate kiss.

After they parted from their long but not too long kiss, they just stayed there silently in each other's arm enjoying each other's company.

They just sat there in peace for about ten minutes before something popped into Victor's mind.

Victor shifted Emily off of his lap and smiling, he stood up. He grabbed Emily's hand and started guiding her to the door.

"Victor," Emily said giggling. "Where are we going?"

"You'll see," he said with a big grin plastered on his face. "I want you to meet someone."

**awww...i love writing fluffiness between these two :) its just so dang cute! :D only 3 more chapters to go...so sad its ending...:( but dont worry. i just got a crazy awesome corpse bride fan fic idea in my mind right now :D i might finish the whole story tonight...it all depends. im in a writing mood.**


	25. Chapter 24

**yay! another chapter! after this there will be one more chapter, and then a small epilogue. enjoy! its not much, but it gets you excited i guess.**

Victor didn't know if this was going to even work, but it was worth a shot. Victor didn't see any reason why it shouldn't work. At the top of Elder Gutknecht's tower, Victor turned around to Emily who was behind him and took her other hand so that he had now both of her hands in his.

"Wait here," Victor said smiling.

"Victor, what are you up to?" Emily said with a smile forming on her face.

"It's a surprise," Victor answered with his grin growing bigger.

"Okay," she said giggling.

Victor bent down to give her a peck on the cheek before he turned around and walked into Elder Gutknecht's tower. He saw Elder Gutknecht and Elder Gudna talking while sitting on a couple of books stacked up on the floor. They looked up when they saw him enter the room.

"Victor," Elder Gudna said. "How are you doing?"

Victor smiled. "There is no word to explain how happy I am."

It was so easy to explain how he was feeling now. Before he had met Emily and had been taken to the Land of the Dead, it had been so hard to express his feelings. Make that impossible. Even just looking at him it had been hard to tell. Everyone in the Land of the Living had had no emotion. Just blank expressions on their faces. Eyes seeming to stare at nothing and that frown that seemed to never change. But in the Land of the Dead, it was the exact opposite. Here, it was just so easy to show emotion and feelings.

If Elder Gudna could smile Victor knew he would be smiling back at him. Victor could tell Elder Gudna was in a good mood. And that probably was because he now was with his brother Elder Gutknecht again and not all alone in his own tower so far away.

"Is there anything you need?" Elder Gutknecht asked him.

"Yes…I was wondering. Is there any way for someone in the Land of the Dead to transport someone in the Land of the Living, to the Land of the Dead?"

Elder Gutknecht and Elder Gudna shared a confused glance before Elder Gutknecht said, "Yes, the Supernaturalis Spell. Why do you ask?"

"I would like my father to meet Emily, and since people from the Land of the Dead are banned from the Land of the Living, I can't take her up there to meet him."

"I think we could make that happen," Elder Gudna said.

Victor's eyes widened a bit and he smiled. He was actually going to see his father again. And His father was going to meet Emily. It was just like he had hoped.

Elder Gutknecht got up and walked over to his podium. He pulled out a book that Victor recognized instantly. It was the one that has transported him and Emily to the Land of the Living the first time he had come to the Land of the Dead. Victor guessed that since they were both transporting spells, they would probably be in the same book.

Elder Gutknecht opened the red volume and started flipping through the pages, looking for the right spell.

"Here it is!" Elder Gutknecht said.

Victor's heart picked up speed in his chest. _This is it_. He thought to himself.

"Okay…" Elder Gutknecht murmured to himself. "Dust, crows feathers, water…"

Elder Gutknecht walked over to a cupboard, opened it, and started shuffling around looking for what he needed. He brought out two bottles and a jar full of black feathers. Then he walked back over to his podium.

He took the largest bottle and took off the top. He then grabbed the other bottle, opened it, and poured it into the large bottle. After that he took three of the black feathers and put them into the mix.

"Anything else?" Elder Gudna asked his brother.

"No, that should be all," Elder Gutknecht replied.

Victor heart beat raced faster with excitement. It was happening now. It wouldn't be more than a minute before he saw his father. He could explain things to him. Why he had disappeared so suddenly. Where he had gone. What had happened. Who he had met.

Elder Gutknecht took ahold of the bottle with the potion in it and poured it out in front of him.

Victor had been expecting the liquid to land on the floor, but it didn't. It floated in the air and it started growing bigger and bigger. It was a blackish blue color. Victor soon realized that it was forming into the shape of his father.

Once the liquid had formed completely into a life size image of his father, it began changing. Changing into the real figure of William Van Dort.

It wasn't long before his father had fully appeared and was now in the Land of the Dead.

"Hello father," Victor greeted.

**:D just like Victor had promised to himself. that Emily would meet his father :). the rest of the story may be up tomorrow because its friday and there isnt much more to go and i have like 2 awesome**

** not-long-but-not-small corpse bride story ideas. :)**


	26. Chapter 25

**yay! new chapter and the last...:'( now there is only a small epilogue...which i will have up tonight :) **

William Van Dort grabbed his cane and his coat by the front door.

He looked over to his wife Nell, who was sitting at the kitchen table drinking her morning cup of tea. William was glad she had finally stopped whining and complaining about all the attention the Everglots were getting since Victoria's wedding.

"I'm heading off to work," he said to her like he did every morning.

"Okay," she replied as usual.

William slid his coat on and opened to door to the plain and gray world of the Land of the Living.

He started his walk to the Van Dort's local business. Ever since he had woken up this morning he had felt…different. Not in a bad way but in a good way. He felt in a way relieved. He hadn't felt like this since before the whole corpse incident. He felt almost normal. Like he wasn't the father of a nineteen year old boy who had fallen in love with a corpse.

William looked up and saw the shop come into view. He cursed himself for thinking so much on the topic of Victor and his dead lover. It had been a week and a half or so since he had seen Victor and he was still unsure about Victor going off into some other town nearby. It just wasn't how Victor was anymore. Victor would have wanted to stay in the forest. Somewhere dark and creepy looking because it would have reminded him more of the Land of the Dead, where his true love Emily was.

Williams thoughts then changed into something work related.

_Wait…did I bring the paper work?_ He thought to himself.

He quickly walked over to the shop and stood in front of one of the tables by the entrance. He opened his coat and took out a folder with a bunch if paper work. He set the folder on the table and quickly opened it.

He started rummaging through the papers checking to see if the right paper work was there.

A paper slipped from his hand suddenly and floated to the ground.

Confused, he bent down to pick up the paper, to find the reason of why the paper had fallen in the first place.

His hand had disappeared.

He gasped loudly in horror drawing the workers and the people around him attention to him.

He then started to slowly disappear. The people around him gasped. Some screamed and others were so scared they could only stare in fear as the watched William disappear.

Soon William Van Dort had totally disappeared, leaving only papers drifting from the folder on the table to the ground from the wind.

"It's happening again," one of the workers said in horror to another worker.

"What?" the bewildered worker asked.

"Just like with his son," he replied. "He's been taken to the underworld."

William felt himself reappearing and opened his eyes, to see his son Victor and an old skeleton standing next to him.

"Hello father," his son greeted.

William opened his mouth to say something but no words came out. All he could manage to do was gawk in shock.

He now understood what had happened. Victor had never gone into the woods or into another town at all. He had been here, in the Land of the Dead, this whole time.

William didn't know how Victor had gotten here, he wasn't dead. He looked perfectly fine, but William had a feeling that all this was going to be explained to him.  
>A smile spread over Williams face and he said, "Hello Victor."<p>

Victor returned the smile.

"I hope you don't mind that we brought you here…" Victor started.

"No not at all. I'm grateful actually. You don't know how much I've been worrying about you," William said to his son.

"Sorry. It was kind of sudden. Scraps transported me here in the middle of the night which I'm still confused on how he did…"

"Oh well years ago," another skeleton William hadn't noticed at first said. "There used to be a rule that no one living could be brought to the Land of the Dead by someone down here. But when Emily came down here, she begged us to change that rule so she could find her true love. So the rule was changed to it had to be pretty important reason to bring someone living down here. So you were the first living person down here, and the reason Scraps could bring you was because it was also a pretty important reason.

"And I'm allowing your father to be down here because _technically _the rule states that it had to be an important reason for someone _nonliving _to bring someone down here. And you're not dead Victor."

William saw Victor smile at how the old skeleton was bending the rules for him.

Victor turned his head back to him and said smiling, "Father, there is someone I want you to meet."

Victor walked out of the room. Seconds later he came back in, with the Corpse Bride.

"Emily," Victor said, still smiling, to his bride, "I would like you to meet my father."

William looked at how lovingly Victor looked at her. He truly did love her with all his heart. William felt happiness he hadn't felt in a while. He was glad his son was happy. He was happy Victor wasn't the depressed guy he had been the last time he had saw his son. Victor had been in so much pain then….But now he was back with bride. And happier than he had ever been in his entire life.

The Corpse Bride smiled at him friendly. William couldn't deny that even though she was dead, she was pretty. Emily walked over to him and stuck out a bony hand. But she quickly drew back her bony hand and stuck out the one with blue dewy skin, thinking that he would be more comfortable with shaking the hand that wasn't decayed probably.

William smiled back and shook her hand. It was freezing and made a shiver of cold run through him.

"Hello," William said warmly, "It's nice to finally meet the girl my sons so crazy about."

The girl giggled in happiness and said, "It's nice to meet you too."

Victor walked over to Emily and put an arm around her waist. Pulling her closer to him. Emily looked up into Victor's eyes and smiled at him.

"How is everyone? How is everything up there?" Victor asked him.

William cringed at the thought. People had been suspicious enough about where Victor has disappeared to, but now, after William had disappeared in front of all those people….

"Not good…," he answered.

"Why? What's wrong?" Victor asked concerned.

"Well, some people already had the hypothesis that you were in the Land of the Dead, and there was quite a lot of people around when I was transported here…"

Victor eyes widened. "I hadn't thought of people actually being around…."

"Shouldn't we send him back before people totally start panicking?" one of the old skeletons asked.

"We probably should," the other skeleton said.

"They probably already have…The whole town probably already knows," William said. "I better get back before they start making crazy predictions and do something nuts…"

"That would be best," said one of the old skeletons.

The other one had an egg in hand and asked "Are you ready?"

William looked at the egg confused.

"It's the spell to get you back to the Land of the Living," his son explained.

"Okay….Yes, I'm ready."

The skeleton broke the egg and a bunch of golden smoke came down on him as he was transported back to the Land of the Living.

**Hope you enjoyed this chapter :D**


	27. Epilogue

"Your father was very nice," Emily said smiling up at Victor.

Victor smiled back at her. "I wish he could have stayed longer…That might have been the last time I will ever see him."

"Naw, it won't be," said the Maggot who suddenly popped out from under one of the pages of Elder Gutknecht's book. "You'll actually see him very soon…"

"What do you mean?" Victor asked confused.

"Well…right before you came in Victor," Elder Gudna said. "I and Gutknecht were talking about how you and Emily could be able to get married. Since we are banned from the Land of the Living and the wedding needs to take place up there. And we _may_have found the answer."

"Really?" Emily asked. "What?"

Elder Gutknecht shook his head. "Not now. We'll discuss this later. Victor and Gudna just got back from a long, dangerous trip. We shouldn't rush into things so quickly."

Victor didn't understand what he meant by 'rush into things' but he had a feeling that this wasn't going to be an easy task. As long as he had Emily, he would be all right.

Soon another adventure would start…Victor knew the task would be long and difficult.

But right now, he would spend some nice peaceful time with Emily, before the new task came for them to complete.


End file.
